Fangtasia: The Fun Begins at Night
by AuroraLamia
Summary: Theodora Alyssa James was meant to write a story for the Daily Prophet about 'Vampire's coming out of the coffin' but with a serial killer after her, a vampire hunting her, and losing her wand after a raid at the club, things aren't going so well.
1. Prologue

A young man, twenty-six in age, sat down at his desk and looked at the first thing that laid there.

Brendan Tyler worked at the largest publishing office in the wizarding world. Most of the time, the books that came through were pretty boring, badly written and a complete waste of his time. But there was something about this parcel that made him wonder. He was getting hat tingly feeling looking at it.

This only happened to books that he was sure would become a best seller.

He ripped open the brown parcel and pulled out the pages. The person had hand written the pages in neat, tidy black ink with a largish sized, though very neat, hand writing style.

The title of the book, an autobiography, caught his attention. He'd heard of the place, Fangtasia, especially after the incident with that… girl…

Oh, it was written by _her_, now this _was_ interesting.


	2. Chapter One

Theodora, Theo to most, Teddy to her friends, and Dolly to her on-again off-again boyfriend Marcus- was running late for work.

"Crap, crap, crap." She muttered as she quickly grabbed her eggshell white blouse, and pulled her black slacks on whilst a brush- enchanted, that is to say- tried to detangle her red hair as she ran into the bathroom and scrubbed at her teeth quickly before washing her face.

"Late, _again_," she murmured as she grabbed her jacket that was hanging off the corner of her bed and tried to slide it on as her eyes flew frantically around the room to see if there's anything going on around her.

Like maybe a good excuse as to why she was late?

As she slid her shoes on over her socks, careful not to slam too hard on the heel of the shoes, she heard a noise just outside the window. She ran towards the window – though mind you, the brush had a trouble keeping up with her as she did so – and unlocked said window.

An owl flew into her bedroom with a letter addressed to her as she began to pull her hair back out of her eyes, "No, not now Millie." Theo fluttered a hand at the owl as she skittered around her kitchen, looking for her wand. "I have an _interview_ today," she continued to the nocturnal bird, "and I just know that that letter is bad news and it will probably slow me down- and that's the last thing that I need right now." The owl hooted and placed the letter in the dish that already held her bills, junk mail and other assortments of letters and postcards that she pretended didn't exist until the last moment.

If you can't already tell, Theo was a _very_ last minute person.

Finally finding her wand, which had rolled under the dining room table, she quickly de-enchanted the hairbrush before finally apparating herself into her office at the _Daily Prophet -_ only running a few minutes behind. "James!" Theo cringed at the sound of her superior, "You were supposed to be here ten minutes ago."

"I know Alexis but I overslept and-"

"Don't want to hear it." Alexis Mane said, holding up a hand in a violent 'shush' gesture. "Now, we've got you an interview with someone from a place in America," She waved her hand in a 'I-don't-really-care-where-they're-actually-from' signal, "since the vampire's came 'out of the coffin'- as they so humorously put it- a few months back, people have been going ga-ga for their bars." She looked at Theo in that moment with her pastel blue eyes, "I want _you_ to get a look around, talk to a few vamps, some of those… _fang-bangers_ and get me a story. If you do this well, it'll be our cover story and that can be a major boost in your career, can't it James?"

Theo nodded, she had been trusted with something epic in the department, though, honestly, she didn't know why she out of all the writers and journalists had been chosen to do the story- maybe she wasn't expected to return? _Ha-ha-harde-ha_, she thought sarcastically.

"You'll leave tomorrow, you'll be taking a port key and we expect you to return," She shuffled through a few papers as she spoke, "in a weeks time exactly." Alexis continued as she flickered a stray strand of caramel hair behind her ear.

"Why so long in… where am I going?"

"Shreveport- and you'll be there for so long because we want a good story, and vamps only come out at night, don't they?" Theo nodded. "Good, now did you finish that story for me for tomorrows issue?"

Theo shuffled through her own papers on her tiny desk before finally pulling out her edited (and re-edited) story, and handed it to her superior, whom then took it without a glance to the actual papers and placed it in a paper folder.

"Excellent, now finish what ever you're supposed to be doing and then go back home and get ready for tomorrow. You'll come to work at around seven tomorrow and you'll get the port key which will leave at seven thirty, no later." Theodora nodded before she watched the woman leave her office with the sway in her hips that showed she was in a good mood.

Letting out a sigh she sat down in her chair, Theo relaxed and lent back in the leather seating. "Hey," a timid voice said as the blonde head of Sandra Browning popped in the doorway, "heard the news from next door, sounds exciting."

"Oh Sandy, the last thing I want to do, is to meet vampires, let alone one that owns a bar- or whatever- honestly," the frustrated writer ran her fingers through her red waves before continuing, "you know, soon enough Muggles will find out about us and all the other things and then we'll have another witch hunt on our hands!"

"Yeah, exciting isn't it?" Sandy walked into the cramped office that could barely fit in two people with a desk and grinned at her stressed friend and co-worker.

"How is it exciting?" Theo sat up properly and looked at her friend closely, "they're _vampires_."

"Well, I'm not all for vamps, but were's and shifters are pretty cool." Theo stared at her insane friend, "hey, don't look at me like that, we're not much better then some of them you realise, they're still a lot stronger then most of us and you know- lots of our magic doesn't work on them, so they're kind of safer to be with then Muggles."

"No," Theo said as she sat up straighter, "they're not."

"Well aren't you miss "honestly-I'm-not-prejudice-at-all."

"I'm not prejudice, I'm fine with any sexuality, religious beliefs or colour-"

"As long as it's not supernatural-" Sandy rolled her eyes as she spoke, "we aren't exactly human ourselves Teddy." Theo glared and swerved her chair to face her desk as she pretended to shuffle through her papers. She heard Sandy sigh and leave the room, closing the door behind her as she did.

Breathing out harshly, Theo thought over what her friend said, she had a right to be prejudice against them- didn't she? After all, vampires were 'blood-sucking-freaks' and Shifters and Were's were 'freaks-of-nature' witches and wizards were _magical_ and mystical, the other's were just… accidents. Mother earth did not want them to exist as she had for the humans, the witches and wizards of the world.

She stood in front of her bed, wondering if sleep was a good idea. Her bag was packed, though she refused to wear any of those 'costumes' that muggles normally wear to the bar, she was professional, not some tourist or fang-banger trying to be a 'rebel'. She had double-checked that she had everything and all ready had an idea of what she wanted as a story. Her idea did not put the vampire's in good lighting, but if Mane wanted a story that was for vampire sympathy, she hired the wrong girl for the job.

Theo's fingers tapped on the bedpost. The sub-conscious act was a habit she had started in the middle of school and had never tried to actually stop, besides out of all the other bad habits she had, this one was the least of her worries. "Hoot," Millie said from the tiny kitchen/dining room/lounge room.

Theodora currently lived in a tiny three-roomed apartment. The main room was an open kitchen separated by a bench and a sudden change from flooring to carpet that led to the lounge room that held a small- understocked bookcase, a couch and a desk covered in books, paper, parchment and currently spilt ink that she would clean up after she attended current business.

Current business being the letter that Mille was indicating to.

The slim fingers of Theo reached into the handmade by a friend blue ceramic dish and pulled out the letter that Millie was bobbing her head at. "Yes, yes, I've got it," she said as she slid a clear-polished nail under the letters fold and ripped it open, before she pulled out the parchment and flicked it open with a sharp movement of her wrist.

"Dear Miss James, we are sorry to regret… blah, blah, blah, you're book 'Tattling Tales' will not be accepted- aw, for Merlin's sake." She threw the letter into the dish and groaned. She had spent _ages_ literally, ages on that book and no publishing house would accept it. And she'd tried a lot.

Placing her head in her hands as she lent onto the table, and dramatically began to grumble incoherent vulgar language towards the publishing houses. After a few minutes of fumed anger, she lifted her head up and petted her owl.

"It's just not fair, I don't know what I'm doing wrong!" She made a noise of frustration before she relaxed her body and stood up again. "Screw dinner, I'm going to bed, I can't take this crap any longer." And with that, Theodora James stalked back to her bedroom, stripped off before putting her sleepwear on and crawled into the comfort of her bed.


	3. Chapter Two

It was two in the afternoon. At least, it was two in the afternoon in- Theo pulled out her map- Shreveport. It was two in the afternoon at Shreveport and she wasn't due to the club called- she pulled out her notes- Fangtasis (_really was that the name of the bar?_) until at least ten, in the evening.

"God, this is really going to make my body-clock go wild," Theo murmured as she checked into the hotel.

"Hello Ms James, we've got you up for a single bed, would you like to upgrade?" _Single, they got me a freaking SINGLE_ Theo's thoughts went wild at this. She would have been content with a double and happy with a queen, but a single just pissed her off.

"Ah, yes please, could I get a king size?" _That'll teach them_, she thought with a devilish smirk.

"Sure thing." The muggle woman typed into the computer briefly before she nodded and directed her to a bellhop. The bellhop picked up her suitcase and led her down a cream-carpeted hallway- passed the dark mahogany doors until they reached a gold-painted (because it couldn't be _that_ posh of a hotel) elevator.

"I'm Theodora," she said in a gentle greeting to the bellhop. Her mother had taught her to be polite to everyone, even if said person seemed to want to avoid eye contact.

"Matt," he replied simply, his eyes on the doors of the elevator as they waited in silence for them to open. People exited the elevator before Matt the bellhop entered, turned around and once again face the door as Theo benignantly followed, trying to set a good impression onto the staff of the hotel. Though really- it didn't last long.

Before long, they finally entered the third floor. Like a good staff member, Matt led Theo silently and a bit coldly to her room. He unlocked the door and placed the bag at the end of the king-sized white and gold bed before briefly departing with a "Have a good evening Ms James," and a courteous nod before he left. Theo began to realise by this time that a lot of the 'customers' here at the hotel preferred their privacy.

With a sigh she unpacked her clothes and gave a once over at the room. There was a bedroom, a bathroom with 'an awesome-as spa that I'll totally use' (as Theo simply put it), and a nice closet space that made her clothes look neat and tidy.

With all this, Theo began to wonder if the reason they gave her a single bed was because of the cost of the hotel. Shrugging, she realised she didn't really care all that much, after all, they had sent her here on a suicide mission; the least they could do was give her a room that she would die happy in. Well… at least close to happy.

After a long relaxing shower (that was long for the reason that it was the best shower she had ever had), a change of hairstyle (she decided to put it up in a French roll), make-up (she had to have make-up that looked both nice and professional) and clothes (a navy blue suit that brought out her eyes, and a pale shirt that made her skin look somewhat less pale) and a light dinner (regardless of the fact that she didn't _like_ vampires, she wasn't going to offend them with garlic- that could possibly get her killed or fired, either way, both were bad outcomes), she was ready to begin the interview with the Shreveport Vampires.

Her heels clicked as she climbed into the taxi with her handbag containing all the utensils she would need for the interview. _If_ they'd allow her to write that is, if all else failed, Theo had a good memory, not a perfect one, but one that was pretty damn good- even at the worst of times.

She could tell that the instant she said the name of the Vampire Bar that the cab driver almost stopped and kicked her out. "I'm sorry, I don't want to go- but my boss wants an interview with the blood-sucking freaks," Theo sighed, "God I hate my job."

"Sweetheart, if your boss is making you do this, I suggest you quit before you get killed, because those vampire's only start trouble- I have a cousin in Bon Temps and he told me plain and clear that two of them fang-bangers have been found dead." The man's eyes met Theo's in the mirror, "It was not a pretty sight."

"That's what you get for flirting with danger like that, no one deserves to die like that of course, that's unfair to anyone, but when you play with fire, someday you are going to get burned, and vampire's are the mother of all fires." The man nodded in agreement, "Don't worry about me though, I'm strictly there on business and if I get killed in their bar a law suit will follow and they'll lose everything." Theo grinned but it wavered slightly as a butterfly began to flutter in her stomach. The butterfly's name was fear and doubt at her own statement.

"Well, keep yourself safe sweetie." He said as he pulled up to the curb.

After paying her fair, Theodora climbed out and fixed any wrinkled that might be on her clothes, or any problems with her stockings. After giving herself a once over, she headed to the front of the bar where a muggle stood carding people.

She was given a once over and a nod to enter inside after she showed her card to the young man. Theo- like most of the supernatural creatures- could tell the difference between a muggle and anything supernatural (also known as a 'supe')- though not necessarily know _what_ the supe may be- especially if they were a were. There affinity to turn into a certain type of animal threw Theo off completely at times.

Inside Fangtasia, three colours stood out, red, black and the random splatters of pure white. It was meant to look like a gothic b-rated movie 'vampire' club scene. Though Theo knew for a fact that most vampires dressed and acted however they wanted to, and this could include anything from fashionably chic or over-the top glamour to jeans and a t-shirt. Though some, especially the fledglings (newbies) preferred to dress like a b-rate movie extra until they found them selves again.

As she looked around, she immediately knew where to go. A tall- even though he was sitting down she could tell- man with blond hair sat upon his 'throne' looking at her with hungry blue eyes. Though he'd been expecting her and she expecting to see him, Theo did not expect the casual- almost bored- look that near suffocated the hunger in the blue.

Swallowing, she took a few steps towards him as a woman appeared next to her. "Eric requires your presence in his office," the woman whispered close to Theo's ear, "come with me _witch_." The word "witch" was spoken sarcastically, there was no love lost between her and the vampire. Theodora was guided to an office where the vampire "Eric"- the tall man she had seen siting in a throne- was awaiting her.

She almost went to ask how he was there, until a 'duh' moment overcame her senses and she realised that he was a _vampire_ meaning he was quick, fast, speedy or whatever the desired word you wish to use was.

"Good evening Ms James, you've come a long way to talk to a vampire like me."

"Yes," she acknowledge whilst sitting down. The woman, who was also blond, that had directed her here into the office, now stood beside her boss- no wait- Master.

"I'm Eric, and this is Pam," He said in a more formal way of greeting. Though the use of hands directing from him to Pam made Theo wonder if he was silently making fun of her.

"Pleasure," Pam said, curling her lips, proving the sarcasm in her voice was to be heard by Theo. As had been said earlier; there was no love lost between the witch and the vamp. "I do like witches," Theo was definitely sure that Pam was talking about blood, but blood and sex were always blurred together with vampires and looking into the woman's eyes she was unsure which she was talking about suddenly.

She herself knew all to well that you didn't have to like, let alone love, someone to have a good time with them.

"Pam, she is our guest," the statement was meant to be a warning to the female blonde, and a peace offering to herself, though Theo could see quite clearly, that his mind too was thinking about her blood. Theodora coughed nervously, and tensed her hands to stop from shaking. Fear was not an option. "So you have questions for your paper?" Silently, she could tell, they were laughing at her.

"Ah… yes, the _Daily Prophet_." She reached into her handbag and pulled out the paper and pen- there was no point bringing a quill and ink. "We wanted to hear what you had to say on the ah- 'coming out of the coffin'" She glanced at her notes, "And we also have some personal questions if that's alright."

"Depends on the questions." She laughed nervously as Eric smirked at her.

"Ok then," She took a deep breath, "what's your opinion on vampires mainstreaming." Theo listened as Eric answered her question, furiously writing notes as quickly as she could, taking direct quotes at times and asking him to repeat at others. Though some comments she left out due to knowing that the public would be… disturbed by the answer.

"I understand Ms James that you'll be returning tomorrow night."

"Yes Mr Northman." Eric's eyes met with Pam's for a brief moment, and Theo watched as silently, the two vampires shared a conversation. Were they talking telepathically, or were they just incredibly good at reading each other? Theodora could not tell, and decided that she'd rather not write on that quite yet.

Soon enough though, they were speaking another language. Theo's eyes furrowed in confusion at the strange language, though it seemed oddly familiar- was it Marcus' natural tongue?

Marcus being her on-again off-again boyfriend she met on a trip to Sweden. He sweet talked her and followed her back to England. Every now and again they would get together and have a wild time, but something about each other clashed and they always broke apart. No. Not 'something clashed' more like- Theo got scared, started to see each and every little fault about him and decide to point them out. There was a fight and then he left her in her apartment, alone, once more.

It wasn't that she didn't like him, just that… well, she wasn't really sure on that.

"How about we meet up elsewhere aside form my bar, perhaps a park or somewhere you would feel more comfortable?" Eric Northman asked her, awaking Theo out of her thoughts.

"Ah, yeah, that'd be good." He smiled.

"We'll contact you by morning Ms James, until then, good night, and don't let the bed bugs bite." He laughed- bringing chills down Theo's spine with the tone he used, as she stood up and was ushered by Pam out of the bar and back to the street.

"You're alright for a witch," Pam said standing in the doorway of the back door.

"Wish I could say the same." Theo muttered, briefly forgetting the enhanced vampiric hearing. She heard Pam's laugh as the door shut and wondered exactly what she had accepted when she took the job on.


	4. Chapter Three

At four in the morning Theodora received the phone call she had been expecting. Pam's voice, enjoying the teasing and tormenting of her 'itchy-witch', gave an address to the not-so-happy Theo, who, and after embarrassing scrambling around the room, was finally able to write it down on piece of paper from her handbag. "I'll be seeing you, itchy-witch," then the receiving clicked off at Pam's cool, near sardonic last words.

With a frown, Theo looked at the address she'd written on the back of the receipt of the hotel room, wondering if it was a real address or not. To ease her curiosity, she went to the dresser and grabbed the map she had carelessly tossed upon the deep mahogany wood. Nope, it was a real place; it was… a house? She highly doubted that it was their nest, but that made her more curious as to whose house it was then.

Did they glamour (use a vampiric form of hypnotism) an unsuspecting muggle into lending their house to them for a while? Or did they own it already? Or maybe it was one of their fang-bangers or an employee's home that was happy enough to agree? Any of those ways were wrong in every book on vampires that Theo had in her mind, but she wasn't an expert (unless you counted fifth and sixth grade history).

Theodora stood up and stretched, trying to loosen the tightened muscles that had only started when she answered the phone. Was it because it was a _vampire_ on the other end or just because it was a vampire she had met only just a few hours earlier that she felt wound up and slightly frightened? She shook her head and decided not to ponder too much over that, the fact that she was frightened already made her even more worried then she had thought possible.

Instead she went into the mini-fridge and pulled out a tiny 'mini' vodka bottle. With a night like she had, she'd drink anything even if it weren't her usual cup of tea.

And this was coming from the woman who thought that drinking was a recreational activity exclusively.

She woke up at four in the afternoon. Hours until she was expected to attend the "meeting place". She went to roll over and go back to sleep- but something wouldn't let her. Nothing physical- just that little voice in the back of her head that told her to get up. Groaning in protest at her inner sub-conscious (which most likely was aware of something that consciously she was not), she tried to get out of the bed as gracefully as possible.

This involved her feet getting tangled in the sheets, half falling out, unsuccessfully trying to right herself before finally stretching and getting out completely and stumbling into the wall and almost knocking the photography down. Though she grabbed the black frame in time before it smashed.

"Well, that went well." She muttered as she re-hung the photograph, while sarcastically admiring her grace. Wiping the sleep from her eyes, Theo stumbled towards her bathroom and headed straight for the shower. The last thing she wanted to see was her ghastly post-sleep look. She'd seen it before and it wasn't pretty – hell even her boyfriend tried to avoid it.

As before, the shower was heaven, with enough water to support a small country for months, and a hot water system that never seemed to run out- at least for her alone. When finally emerging from the shower she looked at her image. It wasn't 'pretty' yet, but it was better then her mirror-cracking image before (which she hadn't _quite_ avoided). Smiling she wrapped the softest towel on earth that only came from a hotel, and she began to brush her teeth in front of the glass basin with the cool, thin, cylinder tap running cold water onto her pristine white toothbrush.

Theo was not one to revert to magic for the simplest of tasks. Her father had been a muggle and her mother a half blood- such teachings did not get buried even after completing school at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. For some reason, she felt guilty for going against her parent's whim.

She didn't bother with dressing professional; she wasn't going out to meet the vamps yet. So instead she just dressed casually in black pants and a grey shirt, throwing her leather jacket over the top. Her leather jacket that had probably saved her from more painful injuries too many times to count. It was a pity she couldn't say the same for the pants she'd worn.

As she slid her shoes on, Theo briefly wondered if maybe she should just stay in her room until nightfall. This passed over her mind only once- she would not stay in a room, as gorgeous as it was- just for some vampire. _Vampire, puh, they're all just blood-sucking freaks._ Her thoughts said to her as she grabbed her handbag, large tanned sunglasses and her key card for her room.

But after meeting the vampires face-to-face, she was beginning to have slight doubt. Only slight of course, nothing too severe.

She stepped into the elevator, and fixed her hair tentatively as she waited for the doors to open. Something about the elevator sent her nerves on edge- maybe it was because as a child herself, a stern woman who refused to look at her had trapped been in an elevator for half an hour. It had been one of the worst memories of her childhood that she ever had.

As soon as the doors opened she exited the elevators as fast as she could without tripping over. A person observing this behind a newspaper just raised an eyebrow at her.

Near the desk, there were pamphlets of Shreveport, and what was available to offer. Looking past the one's labelled 'Nightlife' she picked up the other tourist-y ones. Maybe she could find something to do for a few hours. Go to a few galleries, read a few newspapers, who knew? The world was open for her for a few hours.

Stepping outside, she slid the over-sized sunglasses down her nose and looked around. People were walking around as if nothing happened at night, as if there was no danger, as if none of the otherworld existed.

Her small heels clicked on the pavement as she briskly walked towards a forward-direction. She wanted to go to the Art Gallery, see if there was a show on that she'd enjoy, or maybe she'd go for a little bit of shopping. She hadn't gone shopping for something in a long time, and she could always go for new shoes.

Or some silver, lots and lots of silver, but once again she would _not_ piss off in any way, shape or form, the vampires. Vampires were immune to a fair amount of quick wand magic. The only real magic that worked on them was group magic. You needed a group of witches and/or wizards to perform a good spell on a vampire.

It had something to do with the magic that reanimated them that made them immune.

Whoever was stupid enough to reanimate and create the first vampire would pay greatly by the hands of Theodora Alyssa James. Well, not really, because Theo was scared-shitless of vampires, it was how she was raised and it would probably stick for life. Plus it had to be some strong magic to do as they did, and by that, she meant it had to be a large group of incredibly powerful witches and wizards. Reanimation is a very strict procedure that any mistake can cause absolute destruction – but that was only for zombies, vampires would have been harder (or a very big mistake).

Theo stood in front of the Shreveport Gallery, across the road from a shopping centre. Looking between the two she wondered which she should do first. Then she saw the designer shoe sale and that made her decision for her. She nearly bolted for the shoes. She wanted something sexy, something sophisticated but at the same time, she wanted them to show of her legs without being 'fuck-me' boots/heels.

So obviously they couldn't be red. Red stood out and demanded attention. But black- black she liked. And it couldn't be glossy like those fake-leather shoes, it had to be real, and it had to look nice.

"What are you looking for?" a woman asked as Theo opened the door.

"Something…that is both business and pleasure."

"I see, what size?" the woman questioned with a voice of enigmatic knowledge, her dark, graying hair, glistening in the light as she looked around the room to see if she knew anything.

"Ladies six."

"I know exactly what you should get, and it's reduced from three hundred to one fifty- it's a bargain." She winked before rushing off to the storeroom to grab the shoes. As the woman was busy, Theodora looked around to see if there was anything that caught her fancy. There was, but they were out of her price range even _with_ the sale percentage off.

The woman returned and held the Mary Jane heels up in the air. They had a stiletto heel, but they weren't ridiculously high, in fact, they were perfect and just what she was looking for. She pulled out her credit card before she even tried them on. She could tell right away that they were made for her to wear. And she was going to find the perfect outfit to wear with them tonight, whether it killed her or not, because if she died, she'd die happy whilst looking _damn_ fine.


	5. Chapter Four

_Knock. Knock. Knock._

The sound of her hand against the door seemed awfully loud in comparison to the eerily silent night. Oh sure, there was the distant sound of a dog and the soft sounds of crickets, and distantly muffled, the sound of the neighbour's televisions in the night's air, but still. There was something… still, about the night though. Maybe it was just the fact that adrenaline was making her heart beat a little too fast and a lot too loud for her liking or maybe it was the fact she was about three feet away from near certain death.

_Deep breaths_, she told herself over and over again, she was trying to calm down, stop nervous shakings and such, but even if she could get her heart to calm down, her sweaty palms and shakes would be an entirely different story.

The door opened and Pam stood wearing a pink sweater, black slacks, and white ribbon in her long blonde hair. She looked like Alice gone vamp and it worked really well for her. But Theo herself wore her new shoes with her new high waisted pencil skirt and blouse. She was professional, she looked good and she felt scared as hell. The latter was not working well for her.

"Come in." That was a laugh considering the fact that humans didn't need an invite to enter, unlike vampires. With her handbag in hand, Theo stepped through the doorway into what she assumed was a fang-bangers house. There were used utensils in the kitchen, proving the fact that humans lived there. Vampires didn't eat after all, they drank either Synthetic blood – like the overpriced, but most popular brand; TrueBlood – or they drank blood, the real stuff.

Rumour says Fairies are their drugs of choice- but Theo didn't know for sure and it wasn't like Vampire's to seriously go around spreading secrets like _that_.

"So ah, wher-" Theo began nervously (and slightly too high in vocal range) as she stood in the middle of lounge room. She made a noise of clearing her throat before she retried the sentence, "Where's Eric?" She coughed again, still not satisfied with how she sounded, which was probably due to the thumping in her ears from her heartbeat.

"Unavailable until later," her blue eyes looked into Theodora's green eyes, "he has business to attend to." Vampires were famous for little words and Pam was no exception to the unwritten rule. But by how she spoke, Theo assumed she meant that Eric was working at his bar Fangtasia.

"I see, so ah, should we wait?"

"Sit." Strangely, she did. The command its self had not been forced upon her by glamour, but the way it had been spoken and how Pam said it seemed to have shaken Theo into sitting on the leather lounge at her command like a dog. "I can answer any question you have to ask." Fumbling in her handbag, Theo pulled out her notebook and pen and made another noise of clearing her throat.

"So ah, how long have you been a vampire?"

"At least two hundred years, maybe more." Theo had no doubt in her mind that Pam knew exactly how old she was, but liked to keep that private for what ever reason that was. Vampires were very private people.

"And ah… Eric was your… maker?"

"Yes." Theo was beginning to gain confidence with each answer Pam gave her, and in that moment of confidence, she asked a question that normally she wouldn't have.

"Were you ever… lovers?" Pam looked at her; it was lucky that glamouring didn't work on witches or wizards because this all could have ended in disaster.

"Irrelevant." She quirked her lips after speaking the single, four syllabled, word. Maybe she smelt the sudden jolt of fear that one word at caused deep inside Theodora. Theo was using every slice of control she had to not shake. She'd been to Azkaban and interviewed murders for an article, how could this be any worse? Maybe because they were witches and wizards just like her, and Pam was a vampire, an old one, who could break her neck without breaking a fingernail.

"Oh… ok then." Her pen shook as she crossed out the question from her notebook. The line squiggled and she had to go over it twice more before it didn't look so worrisome, also so that it didn't bring any unwanted, or shameful in this case, memories back when she checked it later.

All the confidence she'd gained, Theodora suddenly realised, had fallen flat from the one look Pam had given her after asking that question.

There were no questions left on her page that she felt confident in saying now, or that she could ask Pam. "Do you have any more questions?" No, she didn't, and she could tell that Pam could read her expression easier then Theo herself could read a giant neon sign. But because she was worried that Pam would kick her out, she said the first thing that popped out of her head.

"What's it like, to be a vampire?" The question, because of it's spontaneity, was the most human and truthful question she had asked as of yet.

"Off the record," Pam began with an intriguing expression on her face, "you'd enjoy it." The witch blinked at Pam's blunt statement, and when she went to ask why, how, or say 'hardly' Pam stopped her with her next sentence, "absolute power over almost anyone? To be able to do anything you want, I can read you, you're like someone I once knew, you crave to be different."

"Being a vampire isn't different, there are a lot of vampires-"

"No, being a vampire isn't different, but _you_ being a vampire would be very different, it would change everything about you. _You_ would be different- which is what you want." Theo frowned at the blonde vampire's comment, that wasn't true, she didn't want to be different, she didn't want power, she wanted to be her, she wanted people to know her and she wanted… something.

"I may want something, but it isn't to be powerful, or-or different I like who I am, and I don't want to be power hungry-"

"I never said power hungry." Theodora swallowed as Pam suddenly was very close to her; all she could see was the vampire's face and her long blonde hair. "I just said you wanted power. I can see that you weren't known in school, you didn't and don't, have very many friends." She smirked.

"I have friends."

"But not many." Pam was reading her like a book and it frustrated Theo, she didn't want to be read, she didn't want to be so easy to read, she wanted to be… different. _Oh… Merlin,_ her thoughts suddenly said as realisation slipped over her features like a bucket of cold water and her mouth dropped slightly.

"H-how-?" But she never did finish her sentence as the door opened. Jumping she realised that Eric had finished at Fangtasia. He smirked at them as he stood in the shadow of the doorway.

"Having fun?" The question was directed at her and she didn't know the answer. She was confused, she was frustrated, she was annoyed and she was suddenly very, very scared of herself. Emotions she normally squelched in the pit of her stomach were bubbling to the surface, and she wasn't sure what to think of it.

Suddenly she had to leave. Relaying so to the two blond vampires, she stood up and went to walk out. But before she was able to completely leave, Pam appeared (or used her vampiric speed) in front of her, and kissed her on the cheek. "I'll be seeing you my itchy-witch," she murmured before Theo had to get out as fast as she could.

Sitting in the motel room with a notebook full of, well, notes. She wondered if she should begin writing what she was sent out here to do. But Theodora couldn't concentrate, and she still had five days left.

Just like reading letters, a lot of the time, she left her work to the last moment.

She was sitting on the side of the bed, her head in her hands and her long red hair falling out of the French braid she had done for the interview that had ended only two hours ago. Her knew shoes were kicked off next to her feet, and her stockings were on the ground. But none of this mattered, Pam's words still rung in her head.

Vampire. Different. Friends. Power, the latter and former running through her head like they were wildfire. Vampire. Power. Vampire. Power. VampirePower.

Standing up suddenly she slipped the rest of her clothes off and took her hair out as she slid into the shower. She didn't want to think about it. Nor did she want to think about the kiss on her cheek on the way the words seemed to mean something entirely different to what they were supposed to.

Come to think of it, the first time Pam had said that had the same meaning-

No. She wasn't thinking about vampires, power, or powerful vampires that could rip her limb from limb.

Swallowing hard as she stood in the scolding water, Theo looked up at the ceiling and closed her eyes as the jets of water began to sting her eyes. If she pretended that none of this was real, that none this was really happening, maybe she'd wake up in her bed, be able to call her ex (or maybe he wasn't an ex? She'd forgotten where they were in their current relationship) boyfriend Marcus for some breakfast or lunch or whatever and just pretend that none of this was really happening.

As she got out the shower, and wrapped the devilishly soft hotel towel around her, she heard the hotel phone ringing. With a grumble, she stalked over and picked it up. "Hello?" She asked.

"This is a warning, stay away from Fangtasia," and then the phone line cut and whoever called her hung up. She frowned at it and shrugged her shoulders. She had no need to worry about threats like that- she was a witch, whoever called her obviously didn't know that she could hex them into oblivion, or maybe they _did_ know her and knew that the reason she was a journalist was because she couldn't remember a proper incantation under pressure to save her life.

Either way, she didn't take it seriously.


	6. Chapter Five

Theo was wearing her black, high-waist pants, her favourite dark chocolate brown ankle heels, and her white shirt that did up to the neck with a black, under-bust vest. She had blow-dried her hair so it was wavy- causing her sun-bleached highlights to stand out more under the lights. She still looked professional, but she looked different. _I don't know why I even tried._ Her inner voice murmured.

Her black handbag was on her shoulder as she stepped into Fangtasia. Eric was sitting in a booth and when she walked over to him he grinned, "My little journalist," he greeted to her, "come sit and meet my new _human_ friend."

"Sookie," the blond (wasn't everyone lately?) woman greeted. At first glance Theo thought she was a muggle, but when she shook the extended hand, she felt the otherness about her – but she couldn't grasp exactly what was different about her, it was incredibly subtle, but definitely there. "This is Bill," she indicated to the vampire sitting next to her, and Theo nodded at him swallowing any comment she might have – she had no right to interview him. In return to her greeting, he nodded as well.

"Theodora, call me Theo," She replied politely, "Anyway, I'm just going to get a better look at the bar this time," She said, directing the statement towards Eric, "Is it ok if I talk to your bartender?" He nodded before turning back to Sookie. Taking this as a fact that he was in the middle of business she turned and walked to the bar.

Sitting down she looked at the vampire who was behind the bar. He looked at her and grinned- though it was not all a 'pleased to meet you grin' in fact Theo felt that rush of fear run through her body with adrenaline following. The grin shown to her by the bartender was a 'pleased to eat you' grin. "H-hi, I'm-"

"The journalist." He said, with vampiric speed he was suddenly very close to her face. "I've heard all about you, what can I get for ya?"

_Nothing,_ her voice wanted to say, _absolutely nothing._ But she was a professional, so she took a moment to compose her self, hoping that no one would notice her repulsion. "Ginger ale?" She asked in the end. She didn't want to drink on the job, that was Marcus' thing, but then again, he wasn't interviewing and keeping most of his emotions locked away.

Moments after saying her drink, she was passed a glass of ginger ale. She reached into her handbag and pulled out a note and handed it to him, receiving a note and a few coins in change.

"Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?" She asked carefully, hoping that she wouldn't annoy – or Merlin save her sorry ass – piss him off.

"Ask away," He replied and she relaxed slightly.

"How long have you been working here?"

"Not long."

"I see." She went to pull out her book, but suddenly became aware of the fact that Long Shadow would not appreciate her writing about him. Instead she grabbed her ginger ale and left to find a spot elsewhere.

She could still feel his eyes on her back as she went to find a place.

But as she took a sip from her drink, she realised that the surrounding people (and vampires) were getting out of the bar – fast. Leaving her drink, she tried to blend in with the rushing people who were escaping into the wide-open front entrance. It was obvious by the distant sirens that the police had been called.

The first thing Theo realised outside was that she had left her handbag inside, but there was no way she was going to risk getting caught in a bar by the police trying to get it back. An incident had happened she did not want to be question, end of story.

But the second thing she realised was that she couldn't keep going around the front of the bar, she was way more likely to be caught by them, so even though she left from the front, she ended up going around the back and walking behind the bar through the alley way between the bar and the store behind it.

"Hello my itchy-witch." Theo jumped at the voice. A cold hand grazed her cheek and she gasped at the change of temperature on her face, "Got out in time didn't you?" Pam asked before laughing. "Pity, I bet you'd look good in handcuffs." She lifted her fingers off her cheek after holding them a few seconds after speaking.

"They wouldn't be able to hold me- I have a…" and then realisation slipped over her as she realised her wand with her identification was in her hand bag. "Aw, , She murmured, "they can find out who I am." The police had pulled up at the front of the bar, and Pam gave her a humoured look before disappearing. A gush of wind- showing that Pam had ran off- blew Theo's hair astray before she continued her path.

As she was walking to her room, a woman stopped her. "Miss James?" Theo was surprised that the woman remembered her, though she smelt something off about the woman, she knew that her memory wasn't just human – definitely a supe. "A package was left for you," The woman handed her a parcel before going back to answer the phone at the desk.

Theo waved a 'thanks' to the woman before continuing her path to her room. Once she was back in her room she sat down upon her bed and opened the package. A stack of photos fell out onto her lap, all tied together with a single elastic band. A stack of photo's of naked women – ugh, disgusting. The first thing that went through her head was that it was somebody's idea of a joke, until she realised that all the photos were of naked, _dead_ women. The top photo of a woman stared up at her with glassy eyes and dead parted lips.

She dropped the photos instantly and they fell out of the elastic band and scattered on the ground. Severe nausea hit her like a ton of bricks as she stared down at the faces.

_Oh god, this is bad, this is very bad, aw crap, crap, crap._ Her thoughts went into overdrive as her eyes refused to look away from the pictures. She grabbed the package to see if there was a return address on the back or something. A pale white note slipped out and floated gently onto the bed, as she picked up the now empty parcel.

_Final warning, stay away from the vampires, or something similar will happen to you._ Was all the note read. No name, no logo, or signature, just those written words. Hand written in blue pen though.

She breathed in, and then out slowly, trying not to take too much or too little. Slowly her body began to calm down, though adrenaline still surged in her body. Shaking she reached for the phone but as her hand reached the receiver and her fumbling finger's went to dial the police, she stopped.

What if they found her identifications, what if it wasn't an accident that the police were caught, what if they come searching here and find the pictures? Would they believe her or…

She was shaking and rocking. There was no one to call, nowhere to go, nothing to do. No, wait. She did have somewhere to go, though they probably wouldn't be there anymore, Theo was sure that if she talked to the person who owned the apartment she had visited earlier, that they'd surely be able to direct her to either Pam or Eric.

Did Pam and Eric live together?

She didn't know, she didn't care, all she wanted was them to help her, give her an idea what to do, something, anything.

Theo picked up all the pictures and wrapped them in an elastic band and placed them back in the parcel with the letter. She scavenged shakily, for her blue sweater and wrapped the parcel in that – though later she would wonder why she was taking such precautions that eventually made her look so suspicious.

With no time to waste – the police might appear any second – she left the building and called for a taxi. If she had her wand she could have apparated but the damn police had it now.

She had the taxi pick her up two blocks away from the hotel, and every time she thought she heard a siren, she would shiftily look every where to see where the noise appeared from. "Where to Miss?" The taxi driver asked, and she jumped before giving him the address. In a moment of desperation, she was lucky to have remembered it.

Moments later she was in front of the house she'd only just gone to the night before. Three quick knocks and a red headed fang-banger answered the door, "Yes?" She asked.

"Ah- do you know where either Pam or Eric are?"

"No, I don't know anything like that." Theo's shoulder's dropped suddenly – everything was falling apart from her, she was going to loose her job, her house, _Marcus_ she would go to jail, to Azkaban if the Ministry of Magic found out, "I have a phone number though."

Hope surged through her like a beam of light.

"Please, it's urgent." Briefly she wondered why she was turning to the vampires. But it was her last choice; there was nothing she could do. She had no floo powder, no British contacts or American witches or wizards, no owl, no _wand,_ nothing to contact anyone magical who could help her.

The vampires were her last and only reasonable resort that didn't end up with her running away and hiding or trying to get her wand back.


	7. Chapter Six

"So you got a parcel and these were inside?" Theodora nodded slowly at him as she curled her fingers around her skin and rubbed up and down her arm awkwardly, "I see," Eric murmured as he flickered through the pictures, "there are at least five for each person," he said after a moment, "but at least one of them shows fang marks – most appear on the thigh or neck." He handed the pack of photos back to the shaking Theo.

She took them without a word and stared at them with glassy eyes. After a few seconds she looked up, ready to just let go and cry her heart out, but she couldn't and wouldn't do that in front of the vampires.

"W-why would someone give them to me with that letter? What did I do?"

"Someone who knows where you're staying has obviously found out about your relationship with vampires."

"My _business_ relationship bothers someone?" Her voice was harsh as she spoke, "We do what we do so we can have heating in our homes and food on our table."

Theo, though still scared, was now furious. She threw the packets of photos to the ground, out of the corner of her eyes she saw the glossy photos scatter, reflecting the light as they all stared up at her, mocking her, scaring her. Rage built up inside, and like a flood, it burst through her walls.

"This is bullocks – absolute bollocks, I've fucking lost my wand to the police along with my identification, I have no way of getting home, I can't stay in that hotel if a killer knows I'm there, and I've got no money, I mean, I had to ask Ginger- the freaking fang-banger waitress- for money, do you have any idea of how embarrassing that was?" Of course, her entire rant was directed at no one but thin air, and Pam and Eric were just spectators who took humour in her pain.

The two vampires looked at each other, murmuring words slightly before they switched languages and spoke a short conversation, eventually they turned back to her once she was calm enough to listen to them, "You can stay here, I have a bed that's almost never used." Pam said, smirking as she said 'almost'.

Theodora's shoulder's fell.

"I-I couldn't." Theo meant the word couldn't above all else at that moment in time; if she stayed, she would constantly be at the end of her nerves, wondering when she was going to get killed next. Not to mention the fact that Long Shadow stayed here, and that guy- sorry, vampire- freaked her out almost as much as Pam did, but for a completely different reason.

Pam was calm, cool and collected meaning she would kill her when she least expected it, though most likely with possible warning. Long Shadow looked like he could rip her throat out if she stepped the wrong way, without warning.

"You have no money, no where to stay and the murderer wouldn't dare enter the home of a vampire," Pam said smoothly, "and I highly doubt that he knows where I live." She grinned at the end of the sentence and looked into Theo's eyes with her own blue ones.

"What about Ginger, I could-"

"I wouldn't stay with Ginger if I were you, she's been glamoured too many times, she'd probably bring the murderer home thinking he was her new honey." The blond woman let out a small laugh at the end of her sentence before turning her face back to a blank, neutral expression.

"Oh." She was out of options, once again, it seemed that fate was trying to kill her and all she did was accept a job. What could possibly have caused such a major Karma backfire on her? She hadn't done anything so bad to deserve this, nor had she done anything that was super good, but still. "So… what about my stuff?"

"Are you willing to go back and get your things with the chance of the killer catching you?" No. She definitely wasn't and that much was obvious by her crestfallen facial expression. She looked up at Eric, and silently wondered why he was helping her, and like a mind reader he knew what she was thinking. "You're a valuable asset to us, if you can persuade the wizarding world to see what we are like, how we truly are mainstreaming, then it's one less war we have to worry about."

Theodora's spine stiffened at those words. She hadn't been planning on writing a story in good lighting, in fact, it was far from what she had planned, but now, if she didn't, she was sure that she wouldn't be able to wake up again. They would hunt her down and kill her, and they had eternity to do that.

_Breathe,_ she told herself as she started to hyperventilate from the overwhelming sensation of death that loomed above her, _let's just deal with a single problem at one time._

She hadn't seen Long Shadow, but there was just over an hour to dawn, and she was certain that he'd arrive sooner or later. Every now and again she heard Pam's movements, but they didn't scare her. Pam was silently, and the only time she did make a noise was when something like the door creaked, or the pipes made a noise or even when the microwave dinged.

But she never- technically- heard Pam herself move. She was a vampire; she was stealthy and silent. Somehow she found that comforting (though she had _no_ idea why).

Theo fell asleep as soon as she saw the first ray of light cast through the window into the bedroom; she was safe at least in her mind. Her body, so tired with the night's events, slept for longer then she had expected and woke her up in the middle of the sun setting. At first glance Theo had thought it to be still dawn, but eventually she rolled over and realised the clock read p.m. nor a.m.

She wanted to be nowhere near Long Shadow when she woke up. But she had an hour, maybe less. That was enough time for her to grab her jacket and slip from barefoot, to into her shoes and walk down the street, grab a muffin and coffee and walk back eating and drinking the small, but carb loaded, meal.

She sat at Pam (and Long Shadow's though the latter she ignored) table, eating her food and drinking her coffee, she tried to decide between either getting out of the house before Long Shadow and the chance of them crossing paths increased, or having a shower _then_ leaving (though with only twenty or so minutes left the former was looking more appetizing by each second).

She swallowed, looked down at her clothes that were crumpled and smelled slightly a bit off and decided that she'd rather shower.

She stepped into the bathroom and stripped her clothes of before folding them onto the towel rack as she adjusted the water's temperature. Finally, after a few minutes, Theo climbed into the quite large and glamorous looking shower.

Her body relaxed as the hot water hit against her bare skin and tense muscles. Theodora allowed herself to close her eyes and just relax against the heat and warmth of the pounding water that acted as a light massage against her back before she opened her eyes and looked around the glass shower stall.

There were products everywhere, expensively perfumed soaps and shower gels for the body, and professional Shampoos and Conditioners for hair. Theo assumed all of this belonged to Pam because she highly doubted that Long Shadow was the type of vampire who liked to look neat and well kempt.

At least, that's the opinion she grasped of him from the few moments they had met.

She grabbed a random bottle of shampoo and began to lather it in her hair as her thoughts drifted. Marcus knew she was in Shreveport, maybe he would come to find her soon, and she knew for a fact that if she didn't return on her due date back to the Daily Prophet to give her story to an editor, they would come and check on her.

She just had to hold out until then, and next time she was offered a job like this, she would turn it down. Nothing good ever came from vampires that much was obviously already.

She rinsed her hair of soapsuds and comed her fingers through it gently to rid of any large knots before she moved onto to the conditioner. Theo took great pride in her red hair, people were always complimenting her for it and because of that, she made extra effort to make sure it remained healthy and strong as well as neat and tidy.

When she finally finished her hair and began on washing her body, Theo wondered why a vampire would need a bathroom, specifically since there was a toilet and she _knew_ that vampire's didn't need toilets. Maybe it was for their fang bangers? That was a possibility, after all, the better kempt your fang banger was, the more likely they would return to you- but maybe there was another reason.

Theo wasn't _that_ curious to find out though.

As she was trying to wash her back, Theodora got the sudden feeling that something had changed in the atmosphere. There was a shift- something added or taken away- but she wasn't which of the two, and she wasn't sure of what. Nothing in her senses screamed danger, so she didn't worry. That is to say, she didn't worry until the washcloth slipped from her fingers and before her body could react, she felt it press up against her back with cool fingers wrapped around it in a loose hold.

She gasped and turned around sharply, her mind thinking that of Long Shadow, only to find Pam- in all her vampiric glory. The red head became very still for a few seconds before she sub-consciously took a step back, away from the glorious vampiric woman.

Her bottom lip quivered slightly in shock as her eyes captured in the form of Pam completely. Pam reminded Theo briefly of the picture of Lilith that Eric had. In fact, Theo couldn't have been more shocked if Pam _was_ holding snakes around her body.

She felt two hands place on her shoulders and turn her around again before she felt the cloth on her back once more. "I don't care if you're witch, you're using up _my_ hot water," Pam whispered into her ear, red lips and fangs so close to her that she didn't blink, didn't take a single breath, unable to flinch.

But once her back was done, she felt the cloth on her hips, her waist, and her ribs before going down again, and then changing sides. Never once touching anywhere intimate as she found the back of her legs washed. Her body was turned round again, and the rest of her was cleaned, but still, nothing intimate was touched. She was confused, why would Pam do this? What interest did she have in it?

And why wasn't _she_ protesting against this?

Pam re-lathered the cloth with soap before washing her own body, as if she didn't notice that Theo was in there with her, and that she was standing- and blocking- the only exit.

The witch watched before she grasped at a breath of courage and went to walk around her. Pam stood up tall suddenly, and with her arms, pinned her 'itchy witch' to the shower. She wasn't angry but nor was she excited. She may have been hungry, but the only expression that Theo could actually read from her was curiosity, plain and true.

Her eyes flickered over Theo's face, and her lips parted somewhat to show fangs. But she didn't really look all that hungry, maybe she was, but in all honesty, Theo could not read that from her.

Nothing was said, nothing was told, Pam just looked at her and she looked back, wondering what she was doing.


	8. Chapter Seven

Theo blinked with shock as she stood in a towel and realised that she had nothing clean to wear. All of her clothes still remained in her hotel room, this included her new shoes, her favourite skirt and even her best bra.

Not to mention she couldn't wear the clothes she had worn yesterday, she had had to sleep in the shirt so that probably stunk of dirt and sweat- and to wear old underwear? Yuck.

Her hair was dripping water droplets as she looked down at the pile of clothes on the towel rack. She sighed and lent her head against the mirror that was above the rack. Her eyes shut and she placed a hand up and touched the cool glass. "Need something to borrow?" She jumped as Pam's cool hands sat on her shoulders. She hadn't realised that Pam was still in the bathroom; she'd just assumed that the vampire had left.

"Ah, well, it-it's just that-" She turned around to face Pam, stepping back as she did so whilst pushing herself against the mirror so that she wasn't too close to the predator. The vampire still scared her, especially since she had pinned her against the shower and stared at her curiously, as if trying to find something. "-that my clothes are… dirty." She shut her eyes in frustration of the fact that she had sounded so indisputably lame saying that.

"You can borrow something from me," Pam remarked as she tilted her head to the side, studying the red head once more.

"Th-thank you," Theo stuttered before quickly asking, "It's free though isn't it?" Pam looked at her and raised an eyebrow, a smirk upon her beautiful, full, red lips. The witch almost expected her to lick her lips and pounce on her.

"Nothing is ever free from a vampire." _Uh-oh, that was a very big uh-oh statement,_ Theo thought at the end of Pam's sentence. Both herself and the vampire could hear her heartbeat rising high as fear coursed through out her body via the bloodstream, her pupils dilated for just a second, and suddenly, it seemed, there was no saliva in her mouth.

"What will it cost me, because-because e-even if you want my blood you're not getting it." She tried to remain strong in saying that, but it was obvious that she was shaking visibly to the eye, and because she had stuttered didn't help to keep her image looking confident. In reality, she knew without a doubt that if Pam wanted to, she could take her, drain her and leave her to die.

Bloody vampires. No pun intended.

"No." Pam laughed as she stepped forward and placed one elbow against the glass, and used her hand to stroke the red hair that belonged to Theo softly, almost playfully. "No if I wanted the blood I'd take it." She extended her fangs to prove her point, and leaned in closer to Theo's neck. If vamps could breathe, Theo was sure she'd feel a warm, wet breath against her neck, but regardless of that sensory, she could almost feel Pam, which caused a shudder that went down to her very core.

She swallowed nothing, shutting her eyes, unable to meet eye to eye as Pam ran her lips close to her before she tilted her head and ran the tip of her nose up the witch's neck, her lips barely millimetres away.

"Then w-what do you want?" Pam slowly pulled away from her neck and placed the same hand that had been playing with Theo's hair upon the mirror. Theo caught her gaze, though she was unable to read it as Pam lent forward. There was nowhere to escape to, and worse yet, she no idea what was going to happen.

Pam was so close to her now, and because of that, the red head shut her eyes, her own hands balled by her sides in fear.

"You," the vampire whispered. In shock, Theo parted her lips to gasp, and like a calling, with the breath she drew, Pam's lips moved with her inhale, to upon her lips. Theo lent forward at the movement, and a part of her felt a hand snake around her head to pull her in closer, but the rest of her senses had been heightened.

She could smell the expensive perfume the vampire worse, feel her lips and skin brushing, grazing temptingly so against her and taste the almost sweet metallic taste of lips and tongue.

Pam had a few hundred years of experience of kissing, and probably near equal amount (give or take a few decades) of kissing women. That was a lot of experience to know what someone like her wants.

_A lot._

Quicker then she thought would happen. Pam pulled away. She wasn't smirking, but Theo could read that she was pleased with what had happened.

Pam had lent her a blue sweater and grey pants. It was expensive material, and she knew this because no way could anything cheap sit this well on her while feeling so soft and delicate. She felt good when she walked into Fangtasia. Pam of course was wearing what she obviously hated. It was the same outfit that Theo had seen the other times she'd seen Pam at Fangtasia. It was a uniform and one that, though looked well on Pam, was not her usual style.

Pam was a pastel girl, not a 'wear leather and look cliché' girl.

"Eric wants to see you," Pam whispered as she passed her. There were no hints, no side looks and nothing that showed that anything had changed between the two. Maybe there hadn't. Maybe Pam still thought her of enchanted food, and maybe she still thought that Pam was a blood-sucking freak.

Maybe it all was a dream and she'd wake up in her apartment wrapped in the arms of Marcus.

Actually, that once favoured daydream didn't appeal to her as much as she remembered it used to. With a sigh, Theodora walked passed the empty throne that Eric normally sat in and walked towards his office. She'd been there once; it wasn't easy to forget where it was though. Her hand turned the knob and she walked in, closing the door again, behind her. Eric was sitting behind his desk, not posing- unlike when he sat on his throne- and looking a bit annoyed. Hopefully that wasn't directed at her.

"Is everything ok?" Theo asked as she closed the door behind her.

"No, someone's been taking my money." _Note to Self; vampires are incredibly territorial, when their things go missing, there is hell to pay. Don't get caught stealing, or better yet, don't steal from them. Maybe I should write a guide to not being a vamps food source- then again, maybe not. _

"Oh, I see." There was nothing more to add, it wasn't her, obviously since she had no reason to steal money, and she would need more then a week to formulate a plan even if she did.

"I got you a gift by the way," This shocked Theo, "Call it a… security gift." Meaning, he was giving her something to make sure that she'd write a good story. Well, threats worked well but there was nothing like a new gift.

When Eric brought up, from next to his chair, her handbag, with her wand sticking out, up onto the table from beside him, Theo's jaw dropped. "Th-thank you." She stuttered as she stepped towards it and went through it with glee. Nothing had been taken from her bag; everything was still in there. She had money again! Oh sweet Merlin she didn't have to stay with Pam, she could go to another hotel and she could get new clothes!

"Oh, before you leave, I need you to come tomorrow, I suggest you stay with Pam for another night." Damn, she couldn't leave Pam's house. "And on another note, you looked a little flustered when you entered here," He was grinning at her, almost knowingly so, "something happen?"

"No." She turned around to hide her fact before she opened the door and walked away, bitting the inside of her lip as she did so, but when she went to close the door, she tried to hold back her emotions enough so she wouldn't slam the door. Instead of going to the bar for a stiff drink, or relaxing in a booth – with a stiff drink – (actually, anywhere with a stiff drink sounded great) Theodora walked to the public bathroom, stepped inside and went into a toilet stall where she pulled the seats down and curled her legs up close to her.

She was scared, she was trying not to be, but she was. She didn't know exactly when this new wave of terror had struck her, just that she knew why it was striking her.

Someone was trying to kill her, they had threatened her, sent her photos and were probably now planning on finding her in a dark alley and strangling her. Briefly she wondered if that had happened anywhere else. Actually, if it were a serial killer then they would have struck elsewhere. She should check.

The other main thing(s) that terrified her was Pam's house, Long Shadow and Pam. In that order from least scary to scariest.

Though even though that was the order of scariest, she'd prefer to meet Pam in a dark alley then Long Shadow. Irony, it bites you in the arse. "Hello my little itchy witch." In surprise at the voice she had jumped and accidentally hit her head behind her on the wall.

"Oww," Theo groaned as she cradled her head. "Hello," She murmured now knowing that there was absolutely no point in pretending that she wasn't there.

"Come out my witchy friend." Still holding the back of her head, Theo stepped forward and turned the lock of the toilet stall. "It's closing time, are you coming home with me or are you going to go elsewhere first?"

"I can't fly," Theo stated, "and I won't let you carry me." She was gaining confidence around Pam, her voice didn't shake at all that time, and by the raised eyebrow she received, Pam too notice, though maybe the raised eyebrow was at her latter comment. Honestly she was a little curious on that.

"I have a car." She could pay for a cab now, hell she could apparate, but somehow, she felt that driving with Pam would be the best option. Plus she'd like to save her money and she wasn't very good at Apparating, it took four tries for her to pass the test, and that was purely by good luck that she got it.

"I'll go with you." Pam laughed and kissed her on the cheek.

"Wonderful." _Yes Miss Wonderland._


	9. Chapter Eight

She had woken up late; night had fallen by the time she'd awoken. But there were no interruption to her shower this time. Some part of her was disappointed, another was relieved and most of her was just thoroughly confused.

But when she stepped out the shower, Pam was standing wearing a light pink shirt, a grey skirt and black, polished penny loafers, and of course, she added the accessory of putting sunglasses a top of her head. She looked great, while Theodora stood wearing a towel looking at her.

"We're going shopping," She said, handing Theo a pastel blue dress. As modest as ever, Theo turned away from Pam as she dressed, though after yesterday's incident, you'd think she'd feel a little less modest around Pam who was as unaffected as ever. But alas, she was not, if not, more so, modest and embarrassed with Pam watching her.

A brief thought drifted through her head, which she diminished quickly. _Stay focus,_ she thought to herself, _the last thing I need is for her to pick up on it_.

"So why are we going shopping?" Theo asked over her shoulder as she shimmied into the dress, blushing crimson as she did. She felt strange in her stomach, a feeling she was not acquainted to. Stage fright brought a close reminded of it, but it was different to that, less painful, but then again she hadn't been on stage since she was fourteen.

"You can't keep borrowing my clothes." Blunt, to the point and an obvious answer that even Theodora should have picked up on. There was no dodging around the bullet with Pam, she'd been alive too long to actually care for human emotions such as hurt. Though in all honesty, Theo was not quite hurt by the fact that Pam was sick of her borrowing her clothes. She'd be annoyed if she'd been in that position… wouldn't she?

"No, you're right, but if you can get my handbag back, why can't you get my suitcase back?"

"Then I wouldn't have these moments where I get to come in and see you in a towel." She stated with a blank expression. "Where's the fun in that?" Realisation dawned on Theo suddenly and she took a step back.

If Theo had actually been paying attention though, she would have realised that Pam had dodged her question quite skilfully. But she was too shocked by the sudden realisation that had come from Pam's statement.

"You're _hunting_ me," She whispered harshly, "Y-you're not getting my blood, I don't consent, I do _not_ give you permission." Pam stepped forward, fangs out and looked at Theo.

"It's more fun when they say no." Theo started to shake as Pam grabbed her, but almost fainted when she realised all that Pam was doing was zipping up the back of the dress. "You don't smell like a lot of the witches I've met, you smell sweeter." She pulled back in wonder and looked Theo over, the same way she did in the shower. "I wonder." She murmured before letting go.

_I wonder what…?_

Theo's mind started to work in over-drive as she tried to think of what Pam could mean by the two worded, three syllabled words 'I wonder'. Was it a question, a statement, a trail of thought, a closing to the previous sentence? What did she mean? She opened her mouth to ask, but before she could, Pam had left.

Mere moments later there was a rev of an engine and Theo found herself sliding her heels on and following the path towards the red car outside. Sliding into the seat beside Pam, she asked, "Why do you drive, I mean, being vampire and all don't you…"

"Being a witch why don't you just use magic to get there."

"Oh," She said. "I see." She looked away and lent her head on her arm before she turned and looked back at Pam, "What time to we have to be at Fangtasia?"

"Three." _In the morning of course,_ Theo added silently. That was roughly. Five-six hours away.

"I'm not sure." Theo murmured as she turned to look in the mirror, "I'm not much of a cocktail dress person- I prefer to look professional."

"Yes, well, sometimes looking professional makes you look unprofessional," Pam murmured before handing her another dress, "Try blue." Blue, blue, blue and blue, everything was blue, green, brown and black. But mostly blue. "It brings out your eyes," She whispered causing Theo to jump. Like before, she had assumed that Pam had left her so she could change out of the green dress into the blue one.

"I really don't get why you watch me change." Actually, she'd only caught Pam watching her the once.

"Try this one on as well," She placed a white pair of dress pants onto the pile of clothes with a golden brown shirt. It was then that Theo realised that Pam hadn't remained in there, she had actually left and returned with new clothes. The poor humans, they're probably stiff with fright, of her. "Next we will get some shoes." Theodora beamed at the statement.

"That sounds great."

A while late, loaded with bags and returning to Pam's car, Theo was feeling great. She was packing the bags into the car, dressed in a new outfit. "I'll be right back, just got to use the bathroom before we leave." Pam didn't reply as she walked away.

_Maybe vampire's aren't_ all _that bad,_ She thought as she washed her hands. "After all, they were all once human." She turned away from the mirrors to dry her hands.

She heard the door creak and too late did she hear the rushed steps coming towards her, Her body froze a millisecond before suddenly something was around her neck. Surprised she didn't react to the attack, confused at what was happening - before realising that someone was choking her, trying to _kill_ her.

Then she started to panic.

She tried to get her hands under the belt that was used for choking her, trying to loosen so she could take a breath, even a single one. Her legs thrashed beneath her as she tried to kick the person, skidding against the tiled floor in a panicked state. Her face felt hot and beneath her skin (and in her ears) she could feel and hear her heartbeat like a loud drum beat, calling her to unconsciousness and death. Her eyes hurt so much. She was coughing while trying to breathe and the feeling was awful, just awful as desperately she tried to survive.

She felt the bubble of magic, and she used all her will to fly the person behind her away from her. She felt the bubble burst and heard the person slam into the white tiled wall as she fell to her knees and pulled the loose belt away from her neck. When she turned around, coughing and wheezing, in no state to attack, she realised that the person had escaped. She lay panting against the cool floor for a few moments, getting as much air back as she could while she never let her eyes stray from the door. Finally, and shakily she stood up and walked back to the car.

Her legs wobbled and her body felt like crumpled paper, torn and used, fear coursed in her bloodstream and her nose was running – the worst part was that she just _didn't _care.

When Pam saw her, she didn't comment, instead she waited for her to speak first.

"I was attacked," She said softly as she lent against the car holding back her tears, too emotional, too tired to even think about what to do next, "I didn't see whom." It was later that she thought maybe she should have picked up the belt to see if any of the vamps could get a scent. If they had been willing to help that is.

Instead though, she curled up in the seat of the car as Pam drove. All she wanted was comfort, her mum to hold her, or someone to say it was ok. Nothing was ok though, nothing. Someone had made an attempt to kill her, may have succeeded if she hadn't had that bubble of magic. She'd been saved because she hadn't practiced magic she hadn't used it up. Oh bloody hell. Loosing her wand had saved her life.

Now Theodora was extremely shaken up, it's one thing to be threatened, and a whole different thing to be _attacked_ with intent of her being dead. It was more invasive, more terrifying and enough to make her want to pull her hair out and run away back home to her bed screaming.

Screw work, she'd rather just permanently hide under the covers.

They drove back to the house, and to keep busy, she picked up her bags and took them to the bedroom before she collapsed on the bed. She lay there for a few moments, staring at the wall before feeling as though she was exposed to the world. Quickly she hid under the covers, hiding her whole body under it, paranoid that the killer knew where she was.

Pam didn't bother her, just dropped some of the bags off and later gave her some coffee. Water would have been better but she didn't say that. Instead she closed her eyes and went to sleep.

When she woke up, she was in the car again and Pam was wearing a different outfit. "Where are we going?" She asked groggily as she pulled the seatbelt on that the ampire had forgotten to do.

"Fangtasia."

Oh. Right. Eric had wanted her there for some reason. She'd asked Pam earlier why Eric would want her there, she never answered, so Theo never asked again. But this time she really didn't want to be there, didn't want to see what Eric wanted her to see, hell she didn't even want to be awake. Being awake meant remembering that she could have died. She didn't want that.

Theodora started to shake, and then she started to cry. She wanted to go home, to London, where it was safe, where no one was after her. Pam looked at the crying girl beside her and reached over to wipe the tears awake. The gesture probably would have meant more if she had then stuck her thumb in her mouth after collecting the tears on her cool finger, but Theo didn't notice that, didn't notice that vampire's were very strange when it came to body fluids.

Hell, she didn't even care.

"Come on my itchy witch, it'll be a good night, Eric's invited the telepath." Oh, so she really was telepathic. She had thought it was a joke when Eric and Pam had mentioned on one passing occasion to another. "We're going to find out who's been taking Eric's money."

"I bet you its Long Shadow."

"I believe it's the accountant, we'll see who wins this," Pam said whilst grinning. Her fangs were extended slightly, and this caused Theo to chuckle slightly. "Winner chooses the prize." Theo hoped that either she won or it wasn't a real bet. Either way, she hoped Pam didn't ask for her blood.


	10. Chapter Nine

Theo sat on the bar table, She was so tired that she didn't care if Long Shadow were to hurt her because she was sitting on the bar. Actually, that should have scared her to hell and back, but it didn't, at least not as much as it had before. Pam and Eric were standing a meter and a bit away, while Long Shadow was behind her and the bar. In front of Theo stood Bill Compton and sitting in an arms length of Bill, was Sookie the telepath.

Theodora actually had her notebook out on her lap with a pen between her fingertips, of course, she wouldn't name anyone who didn't give her permission. So Sookie and Bill were not to be named and nor was the accountant, instead she named them the Human Woman, the Brooding Vampire, and the Accountant.

Well, the 'brooding' vampire was a name she was still working on.

Sookie was sitting down in front of the Fangtasia accountant. The accountant was sweating a lot as Sookie asked him a few questions. Finally she said that he knew nothing and they moved onto someone else. As soon as she said this, Theo turned and looked at Pam whom was barely paying attention.

After a while Ginger came in. Theo raised her eyebrows. Highly doubting that Ginger had enough brains or bravery to steal the money. But she assumed that Eric had to try everyone.

"No, she didn't do it, but she knows who," Theo's eyebrows rose even higher. She was surprised that Ginger actually knew something. "Her mind's got a blank spot… a hole."

"She's been glamoured," Pam said with her arms folded. Theo knew what those words meant- it had been a vampire, and jumping to conclusions she turned to Long Shadow. Long Shadow threw her across the room as he jumped past her and grabbed Sookie. Before Long Shadow could actually kill Sookie, Bill had snapped off wood from behind the bar and imbedded the stake deep within Long Shadow's back

When Theo looked up, all she saw was Long Shadow basically… throwing up blood all over Sookie before decomposing into a pile of goo. She briefly remembered that Ginger had been screaming before, even though now she was quiet, in her mind, the redheaded witch registered that something had stopped her. But she was too busy writing herself and trying to ignore the pain in her back from been thrown with such force across the room.

After being in the second Wizarding War, a vampire's final death only left Theo feeling a little queasy, unlike Ginger who vomited all over the body and the floor.

Time flew after that. There was small talk between Pam and Eric, and also with Sookie and Bill, before Sookie went to wash up – Long Shadow's death had left her stained red – Eric went to talk with Bill, while Ginger was glamoured by Pam and then Pam left for elsewhere.

This left Theodora to watch as Ginger cleaned up the now deceased (and finally dead) Long Shadow - though it was obvious by the way that she was acting now from the way that she had been acting before that the fang-banger waitress had absolutely no clue was she was mopping up. Once again, Theo was glad she was not susceptible to a vampire's glamour.

With no place to go and nothing to do Theo walked back over to the bar and sat back up on it and hunched over to place her head in her hands. There was no one to tell her off and quite frankly she felt she deserved such seating from what she had only just observed mere moments before.

The witch wondered (as her palms dug into her eye sockets bringing white spots to dance and burns her eyeballs) what she was even still doing in Shreveport. But things just got a whole lot more complicated when she thought over the many reasons why she was still here. And then a thought passed over her that made her entire core shake. She was a witness. Witnesses can be called upon in a court case – a court case ran by vampires. "Ah fuck," She murmured, "just when I thought things couldn't get any worse I had to witness a final death of a vampire."

Ginger had left for home, Eric and Bill were still talking and Sookie was sitting across from Theodora at the two-seater table as they both nursed their virgin drinks. Pam was leaning against the bar with an empty bottle of O negative. "If you don't mind me asking, why do you prefer O neg if AB neg is the rarest," Theo asked as curiosity soaked her voice like acid as it burned away her fear of asking the woman a question.

"Why do you enjoy chocolate if it's so accessible? I enjoy O negative because I enjoy it." Pam said with a cock of an eyebrow.

"Oh – of course," Theo murmured as she pulled her pen out and wrote that down, "Rarity has got nothing to do with it – so most vampire's enjoy O neg?" Pam shrugged her shoulders; Theo could see this was an 'I don't give a damn to know' gesture. A moment of silence followed before Eric and Bill finally emerged from Eric's office. Bill nodded at Eric before taking Sookie's hand and leaving – once he did, both Pam and Eric were speaking once again in what Theo was pretty sure was Swedish.

_That's it_, she thought, _when I go back home, I'm going to have Marcus teach me everything about his language from basic to formal, to damn complicated techniques._

Been left out of a conversation made Theo almost desperate to learn Swedish but for all she knew what they were speaking could be an old form of Swedish. She still wanted to learn it though.

"So… what happens now?" Theo asked – there had been a silence and she was beginning to become very nervous again. Long Shadow had _not_ been the murderer after her, and even though his death would make it easier to sleep that night, it wouldn't be nearly as comforting as knowing the serial killer was behind bars.

"You are getting in a lot of trouble my little journalist," Eric said with a grin that didn't touch one side of his face, but broke the other side in soundless laughter. "Bill tells me that there have been murders in Bon Temps that are near to the same of your almost murder – quite interesting don't you think?" Theo nodded slowly, though in all honesty the thought that there were others who hadn't survived scared her shitless. She knew there had to be others, but to be told that there actually was – well that terrified her even more.

It was quite irrational of her.

"Humans." Was all Pam said, her voice making the word sound as though she were speaking of the vermin that scattered the hallways of hell. But in that context, it was quite true then, even though Theodora refused to admit that part to herself quietly, let alone aloud.

"Humans have some good qualities, we're-" Theo began defensively.

"Witches are not humans, at least not your type of witch – you are like the fay, you're born of magic, there are other witches born of human descent." Eric said, "They're known as 'the common' witch, they taste bitter, like the earth in the dry season, not enough power."

"Unlike your kind, from what I've heard, is quite sweet," Pam quipped while smiling so she could show off her fangs, "but we won't ruin our relationship with a bite yet." She directed a gaze at the 'itchy witch' before turning away. Theo, whose body was beginning to hum, became very uncomfortable suddenly. Though what the hum meant Theodora had utterly no idea. But for once, she actually did want to know, come to think of it, she has wanted to know a lot of things since she'd came to Shreveport.

"Sometimes I wonder if I just let you bite me, would all my problems be resolved and just disappear," Theo remarked, surprisingly both her and the two vampires in the room. "That's not an invitation though," She added hastily before turning her eyes elsewhere to look at something different. There was a pregnant paused that caused Theo's nerves to thrum loudly in her ears before she quickly asked, "are we able to leave now?" in a voice that was slightly higher then her own usual voice.

She could fel her cheeks turning red, and probably clashing horribly with her hair. She bit down on her bottom lip and looked around the room, scared to meet eye contact in the wait for a reply.

"Yes," Eric replied, which received a nod from Pam who began to walk out of the bar. Theo, quickly realising what was going on, hopped off the bar and caught up with Pam who was walking at a slow human pace as she headed to her car. This was possibly for the benefit of Theo.

In the car, as silence provoked her, Theo turned to Pam and asked, "Are all vampire's… omnisexual?" Pam laughed at the comment.

"You live long enough there isn't much taboo you don't try, but we all have our preferences – Eric prefers women, like myself, while others may prefer men." She had looked at Theo at the spoken comment, "what about you itchy-witch?" Theo swallowed.

"Men." She said quickly which received a raise of an eyebrow.

"I use to think the same thing." Pam said grinning. Theo's body quivered at the comment. "Have you tried it – women are much softer, the power is under the surface which makes it more fun, unlike men who have it on the surface for all to see, but sometime's that what people like," Theo's body quivered and she wrapped her arms around herself as she stared out onto the dark road for a few minutes before Pam spoke again, "You never answered my question."

"No, I've never been with another woman, never kissed one until you or done anything sexual in any way with one of the same gender."

The car pulled to a stop and suddenly Pam turned and looked at her, "Then how do you know that your preference is not with women, unless you've tried you can't say no to it." Pam was right with that, but she didn't want to admit it. She was pretty sure she was straight.

"How do men not know they're gay if they don't try it then, how do some just hate gay men if they haven't tried it."

"Have you not hated something that you liked because you were told it's wrong, that you shouldn't?" Pam asked and Theo thought over. Yes, she had, she'd been told things and she hated them even though a part of her was drawn to them, to it all. Why? "Make your decision after you've tried it."

"Ok." She said, but Theo had no idea what she meant by her own comment.

Pam smirked at her, undid Theo's seatbelt and leaned over the middle compartment to where Theo was.

Theo felt her before she actually saw her out of the corner of her eye. A long blonde strand brushed upon her shoulder before a cool hand slid around her cheek. She had no time to think, to process what was about to happen, and suddenly she felt those velvety lips upon her she took in a deep breath from her nose and kissed back, allowing the vibrations to flow through out her body.

Finally, when she felt as though she was going to have to give up on her life, the vampiric woman pulled away and smiled at her.

"Now that wasn't so bad was it?" She teased before moving back into her seat. Her hand reached for the gearstick and placed it into first with ease whilst she listened for any cars. Finally they were back on the road and Theo was still trying to peel herself from the car seat and door.


	11. Chapter Ten

It was three fifteen in the afternoon and Theo was sitting on the bed cross-legged as she read through her notes, crossing out some parts and adding bits and pieces that she remembered to others. She'd decided, after a good day's worth of sleeping, that she was scrap her previous work of the article (that she had started before even arriving in Shreveport) and to begin a new one that put vampires in _good_ light.

Tonight was her last night, tomorrow, at two fifteen in the afternoon; she was to leave for home via port key that had (supposedly) been sent to Eric.

She would have to go to Fangtasia and ask for it tonight, after, of course, allowing Eric (and Pam if she wished) to read through the article she'd written. In her opinion, it was the most detailed, explicit thing that she'd ever written – and this was with her head clouded with last night's attempted murder on her, seeing an actual murder, and revelation via Pam – so this had potential to not only knock her bosses socks off, but also get her a career boost.

She was _damn_ excited.

A few hours, three teas and some rice crackers later, she had her final polished work. Theo glanced at the clock and then looked out the window, the sun was close to setting completely, which meant that Pam would be rising soon. This fact brought quivers to run through her body as well.

She lay back down on the bed, paper crinkled under her body and a pen rolled off the covers onto the floor and under the bed as she did so. When she got home tomorrow, she was going to write to Marcus, call him over, and melt into his arms. She needed his musk surrounding her, _reminding_ her of who she was. Being here, with the vampires, cut away from her people, was making her forget who she is, whom she was.

She sat up briefly and cleaned the bed so all the papers were neatly by the side of her onto the bedside table before she relaxed back upon the bed with her hands behind her head.

_Home…_ she thought with soft sadness, _I miss my home, the way my house smells and the near uncomfortable stiffness of my bed, my lame shower pressure, Millie – I miss her a lot – and I miss Marcus_. She rolled over to her side, looking out at the dark sky; _I wonder what he'd say to all of this._

She sat up again, no longer comfortable on the soft bed. She grabbed the mug she'd been drinking from and the plate she'd used, and took them to the kitchen where she rinsed and cleaned them in the sink before drying and placing them back where they had been before.

Then she looked at the clock on the wall, it was full darkness now and the entire vampire population in Shreveport would be up by now.

Sure enough she heard the bathroom shower running. Some small part of her wanted to creep into the shower just to see what Pam would say, while the rest of her wondered what was going to happen tonight.

Her article was done, finished completely, though she had only written the entire thing today majority of that was just piecing notes together and changing a word here or there to bring a complete paragraph together. It wasn't a big article; she'd only taken the good bits leaving out a lot of the negative parts.

Not to mention she edited, and edited, and edited until she was sure there were no typos – though the _Daily Prophet_ had a charm to do that anyway.

Theodora moved from the kitchen, to into the lounge room where she sat gently down onto the large couch and flickered through the television stations. She watched the news until they brought up the Bon Temps murders, before she started to watch some children's program.

As the show went into an ad break, the back of her neck prickled and a shudder went down her spine. She turned around and nearly fell off the couch as she saw Pam behind her with her arms folded as though she'd been there for ages. Which she probably had been.

"How long were you there?" The red headed witch asked as she tried to smooth the creases in her pants, not because there actually was, but because it was something to do.

"Since you changed the channel from the Bon Temps murder on the news to the that children's program," she gave her a look, "I read your newspaper article- it was interesting. I believe that Eric will allow it to be shown by the wizarding public." Visibly Theo relaxed, now realising how tense she had been about that article.

"Good, because it's due tomorrow," she smiled, "tonight's my last night here, I'll be leaving via port key tomorrow afternoon when Eric gives me the key that had been sent to him." Pam gave an interesting look that did not look positive to the statement that came from Theo's mouth. "What?" She asked nervously, her hands clinging tightly to her pants.

"You may not be able to stay home for long," she answered, "but you should talk to Eric about that." Theo had a bad feeling that this had to do with the murder she witnessed.

_Crap_.

She stood in Fangtasia, standing out like a sore thumb with her gunmetal grey slacks and green turtle neck shirt with her brown leather jacket thrown over the top for warmth. She looked around the fang-bangers and tourists to where Eric should have been on the throne before she decided to check out his office.

He was sitting behind his desk working on something that had a lot of numbers (_Taxes maybe?) _as she entered. "Ah, my little journalist, Pam tells me you have the newspaper article?" She nodded and reached into her grey bag, pulling out the article and handing it to him to read before she stepped back and sat down.

He read through it before handing it back to her with a slight nod of his head. It was accepted. "Now onto another matter, you wish to go home tomorrow?" She nodded, "Yes well, due to some unfortunate events you will be unable to stay home long, but because of a contract we signed with your people we have to allow you to return home for around a week if things go to plan." She repressed the urge to frown and break into tears.

"So I can go home for a few days before I am obliged to return?" He nodded, "Is this by any chance to do with what I witnessed a few nights about…" She didn't dare finish her sentence, just waited for his confirmation.

"Quite, now here is the port key," he handed her a broken umbrella, "I'll see you in a weeks time." She nodded and turned away from him before leaving. She went out the front of Fangtasia and stood in front of Pam as she allowed a couple to walk through before stopping anyone else from entering.

"Are you getting off before closing or should I catch a cab back?" A large sized man, definitely human though, came up and took her spot. "Well that answers that question," Theo joked badly only to receive a look in return.

They climbed into her car, "Do you really want to go home?" Pam asked, "You've got the whole night a head of you to accomplish anything left undone." Theo looked at Pam under her eyelashes.

"I have a boyfriend who loves me back in England, I met him overseas and he followed me back home, we have fights all the time but we still love each other," Pam raised an eyebrow as Theodora spoke, "I miss him more then I realised that I would in these last days, but less in the first days – the strange thing is that I don't miss _him_ so much as the fact that I miss companionship."

Pam didn't speak, only listened as she spoke.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm scared that if I stay too close to you, I might find myself doing something regretful, I came to Shreveport in the hopes of destroying vampires – not physically but metaphorically – and instead I come out of it thinking that the vamps that I've met, for the most, are so different to what I expected."

"Do you want to sleep with me?" A question, not asking her if she would like to right now, but asking if that she what she was trying to dodge around. Theo blushed crimson and twisted her hands in her lap.

"I don't know who I am anymore." Pam let out a sarcastic laugh.

"Do me a favour witch, when you go home to your boyfriend tomorrow, fuck him, and when you're done, look into yourself and look back at the history of people you admired greatly in your life, look at the qualities of men you liked and look at your past and see if you only like men because your supposed to."

"W-what?" Pam gave her a look.

"It doesn't matter who you sleep with, what sex you like, or even if you're a virgin or not, your still you regardless of all those things, stop trying to be someone else and just do what you want."

Silence followed before Pam pulled up at the hotel, "What are we here for?" Theo asked, avoiding eyecontact.

"To get your things before tomorrow."


	12. Chapter Eleven

Theo stood with her suitcase filled with both new and old clothes in the hallway. Last night, after picking up her things and checking out the hotel, she'd gone to bed early only to wake up in the morning with a naked man walking around. It only took a few seconds to realise that Pam had had take out for dinner.

"Well, now I don't feel so special," he had said when he looked her up and down in her night slip. "Are you her-"

"No, I'm a journalist for a prestigious magazine in an exclusive part of the world, I am not her food source." The man had looked hurt and avoided her as much as possible. He was currently in the room where she had slept, he'd been asleep on the couch once Pam had kicked him out her room, which lay in the basement – though Theo had yet to see it.

Though by the way the man had acted, she had suspected that he'd been either kicked out of the bed, or had been sleeping on the couch down there.

"Less then a minute now," she whispered as she flicked some of red hair behind her ear. Part of her was sad to be leaving without a goodbye, part of her was waiting in anticipation to go back home after she dropped the newspaper article off, all of her was looking forward to her own bed, crappy shower and Millie.

She missed her pet bird very-

Her thoughts stopped as that feeling happened, the one that made her feel like she was loosing her mind and stomach, and feeling both incredibly light and heavy at the same time. The feeling happened for a period of time she was unable to count until suddenly she landed on the floor of her office.

She straightened herself up and looked up at her boss, "Hello Alexis, how are you this fine day?" Alexis raised an eyebrow and held out her hand expectantly.

"I expect that you had a good time in Shreveport, Mr Northman tells me that you are to return in a few days as a witness for something- and I quote- 'top secret, but rest assure she will be _well_ looked after' I do hope you havn't been sleeping with vampires James, that could end in a disaster," She sighed as her eyes glanced over the report, "Interesting."

"Yeah… right, anyway-"

"I'm not finished yet James," Alexis looked down at her sharply and turned around, expecting Theodora to follow her as she walked away from the office, "look, I'm not saying that it's not good thing that you left a good impression on the vampires, because if we had another dead journalist on our hands-"

"Another?"

"Yes Theo, _another_, as I was saying, if we had another dead journalist on our hands then we would all be quite 'royally screwed' so to speak, but the fact that you managed to come back with a pretty good article from what I read surprises, I must say, I expected a lot from you, but to make such an impression on them, even I didn't expect that." They walked into her office, and sat down, Alexis behind the desk and Theo in front.

"Can I go-"

"Not yet, first I need you to sign this contract," she pushed it towards her before then handing her a quill.

"Ink?"

"You wont need it for this," Alexis said before saying the most human and nicest thing that Theo had ever heard her say, "I'm really sorry about this, but it's necessary that it's in your blood so we have proof that only you signed it." Theodora nodded sadly as she read through the contract.

"Wait, what does this mean?"

"It means that next week when you go over to Shreveport, it is on unofficial, off the record business and if anything happens neither we nor the opposing party are legally to be blamed, any mysterious death related incident will be covered up and you are legally obliged not to mention any 'secret vampiric business' to anyone unless given rights by a King or Queen vampire, a Sheriff of any area and the party you are writing about."

Theodora read through it a couple of times, trying to comprehend the lawyer/vampire/wizard jargon written. After she was satisfied, she picked up the quill and signed her name – whilst wincing – on the line allocated below by a single 'x'.

"Is there anything else?" Theodora asked sadly.

"Yes, there is, but I'll talk to you about it on another time, I am _so_ sorry though," the red headed journalist's lips parted in question, "take the week off, a paid week, trust me sweetie, I didn't know and I am so sorry." Theo became afraid suddenly as she stood up and decided that she didn't want to know quite yet, she wanted to be blissfully ignorant just for a few days.

Outside of the office, in the hallway of her work, she ran fingers through her red hair. "Accio suitcase," She called, pointing her wand at her office, the suitcase came quickly before she herself apparated away.

In her apartment, she bit her lip, dropped her suitcase and grabbed some floo powder, and directed her wand to the fireplace before shouting desperately, "incendio," she then threw the floo powder in the fire and spoke the words to Marcus's apartment before sticking her head in. "Marcus!" She called, "Marcus, are you here?"

Marcus poked his head around the corner of his study, "Dolly!" He exclaimed with a thick Swedish accent, "How are you my älskare?"

"Marcus, please come over, I need… I need you."

She lay in bed, wrapped in the arms of the sleeping man. She should be ecstatic, Marcus had came when she called and listened to her story, then carried her off to the bed where they passionate sex. Except… except the sex had only been passionate on his half, she felt empty, she felt nothing special, nothing tingling in her core.

But she did love him, to know of his death would kill such a large part of her and she knew that with every fibre of her being.

Marcus was a dear friend and they fought a lot – like any other couple did – but when she asked herself, _could I marry this man and live for eternity raising his children and loving and honouring only him_? She knew that the answer was no. She could not be tied down to that man no matter how much she loved him.

He was enough as a friend, but not enough as a lover. And it wasn't that he wasn't good looking, or nice, because he was. He may not be the sharpest tool in the box, but he was the shiniest.

But she didn't want just a pretty face, even if he was nice, she wanted… _je nous se qua_. But for now, she would appreciate what she had while she looked for the man who _did_ have that special something. Someone like Eric, except… maybe not a vampire- she _did_ age after all, and being with a vampire who would eternally be beautiful, well… eventually jealousy would kick in, probably around the same time as the first wrinkle.

"Are you ok my love?" She rolled over and looked at her boy, his pale eyes, smooth skin, shiny hair and beautiful accent made her happy. _Especially_ the accent, and when he was with her and they were together and he was swearing in Swedish, she had to admit, that did turn her on a lot.

But… it just wasn't enough to fill her up.

"When are you leaving?"

"A weeks time, and… Marcus, my sweet, do not be afraid but I may not return, I've… I have reasons to suspect that my work does not expect my return for some reason." He stroked her face, a little too strongly, and told her all the reasons why she would survive. It was the most romantic thing he'd ever done to do.

She sighed at the end of it. To her, it seemed like this time, when they had sex, she was doing it as a goodbye. He must have caught onto that, because he left her the next morning as she slept peacefully on the other side of the bed curled up as small as possible.

She woke up, looked around, and when placing her hand on the other side to find it cold, realised what had happened instantaneously.

She showered, had breakfast and then sat at the table starring down at the letter he left for her.

'My lover,

Last night, as I held you in my arms, I realised that different paths were separating us – though I suspect that you've known longer then I.

I hope that our paths to meet once more in life before parting away forever, but before I go, I wish to thank you for the love we shared and the wonderful memories we may keep together.

Marcus'

She cried, not because she hadn't wanted to break up with him, but because she had lost something that had been dear to her, a part of her for a while now.

"I hope we do meet again," she whispered as a tear drop smudged his signature.


	13. Chapter Twelve

"What can I get you two?" The waitress asked in tiny restaurant they sat in, looking out towards Diagon Alley. The two women glanced at each other before Theodora allowed her friend, and co-worker, to order for the two of them.

"Today's soup special please," The waitress nodded, "and… just water I think for starters, could we get some bread rolls though, please?" The waitress nodded and smiled before walking away to hand the order to the kitchen.

"So what's been happening while I've been… absent?" Sandy glared at her, and shook her – recently died purple – hair from her eyes.

"Nah-uh, not until you tell me what happened, you went _to_ Shreveport with an attitude of the Supes, then you come back and write an article in _favour_ of the vamps? Not to mention you seem to have a new clothes sense that looks good on you. What in Merlin's name happened?" Theo grinned softly at the comment about her style.

"Pam took me out shopping after-"

"Pam… as in the blonde vampire woman you wrote about?" Theo nodded, "sweetie, have you been glamoured?" Theo shook her head as she ran her fingers through her hair, before flicking any stray strands off her fingers.

"I wish I had been," she whispered sadly.

"Alright hun, what happened?" And so Theodora told her friend what happened, the whole story from beginning to end, nearly completely unabridged. Sandy was a good friend and Theo was terrified that she would be losing their friendship very soon because of what happened.

Alexis had sounded so sorry for what was to happen in a few days and the contract that she had to sign didn't help to calm her nerves at all. And as she thought over the contract as she talked, she wondered if maybe she should have refused to sign it.

When she finally came to the end of the story, and the waitress had arrived for the second time, only with the soup this time, she looked at Sandy with sad eyes. "I don't think I'm coming back for some reason, I think my work expects me to die, maybe the vampire's want me dead or-"

"Maybe Pam wants you." Theo glared at her friend as soon as the comment was spoken.

"That was uncalled for, besides, if Pam wanted me she would have me." Sandy raised an eyebrow and leaned in over her soup, looking at Theo.

"Theo sweetie, are you gay?"

"What!" Theo jumped before slamming her fingers over her lips as people stared at them. She calmed herself down and smoothed down her outfit before looking back at her friend, "look love, you can tell me if you want, there aint anyone less judgemental then myself." Theo shook her head and smiled slightly.

"No, I'm not gay." She sighed and sat back in her chair, before tearing a piece of bread roll into small pieces to try the tomato soup. "Why'd you ask anyway?" She said before placing the dunked bread roll into her mouth delicately, making no mess as she did so.

"You mentioned before that you kissed her," Sandy shrugged as she took a spoonful of soup, after swallowing she spoke again, "and you mentioned that you liked it." Theodora paused midway between taking a sip of her water, and decided to just place the glass down on the table without taking a sip.

"No, it wasn't… it wasn't something _gay_ you know, it was just…" She thought about how to word it, "it was just her kissing me and me kissing her, and both of us enjoying it, I mean, I've never before found another girl sexually attractive right? But Pam, I dunno, there was something about her, something… seductive under the surface but also beautiful in general, I guess." There was a pregnant pause held between them before Sandy spoke.

"Did you sleep with her?"

"No," Theo replied without a beat as she continued with her soup.

"Do you want to?" Theo went to answer, but found herself unable to find the truth in that question, she opened and closed her mouth a few times before stuffing a piece of bread into so she didn't have to answer at that point in time. Sandy made a noise of 'mmm' before saying, "that's what I thought."

"Shut up."

Theo pulled out her suitcase and began pulling out all her clothes before she began to separate them into two different piles. The clothes that she looked good in, and the clothes that she had thought she looked good in but now realised weren't her style.

She'd tried to look professional ever since she had received her job as a journalist for the _Daily Prophet_ but now, since her expedition, she realised that 'dressing professionally' wasn't who she was. She wasn't professional, wasn't punctual, wasn't a neat freak and at times she was lazy, forgetful and quite a hard person to live with – hell she hadn't been able to live with another man for more then a few nights without been driven mad with lack of privacy.

She'd been wearing a mask, trying to be someone else, someone who _was_ professional, someone who one day wanted to just settle down, marry and have children, someone who was punctual and enjoyed working and just was a face in the crowd who was perfect at her job. But she wasn't any of those things, she was just Theodora Alyssa James and it was time she finally realised that.

So she chucked out all the clothes that she could bear to part with, and kept all that she wanted.

If she was going to die when she returned to Shreveport then she was going to die living the life she wanted. She didn't want to live in England any more, she didn't want to work for a newspaper and be told what to write, and she didn't want to be tied down by anything. For once, she realised, that she just wanted to fly free.

Suddenly, as she stood up to place the good pile of clothes away, she was reminded of a list she had once heard about. Sandy had once told her about writing a list of ten things she was too scared to do, and do them before she died – she'd never done it, but now… now she had the opportunity to.

She placed the her clothes away before then pulling out a pot of ink, a piece of parchment and her best quill.

It didn't take her long to write out a list of ten things she'd always been scared to do, but been wanting to. Like for example, last year, when Sandy told her that she should write a book about something that _she'd_ experienced instead of writing about what she wanted to experience.

Which took her to number nine, go to a party and kiss a stranger.

She _should_ do this in order, she _should_ start with the book, but something deep and animalistic inside her wanted to do a lot of the lower numbers on the list. She took a deep breath, shook her head and decided that _no_ she was going to do this in order, and first thing was first; she was going to at least begin the book.

She grabbed her wand and apparated to her friend's apartment, muttering under her breath "ah, screw it."

Her body pulsed to the music, bodies sweating around her as she was. For the first time since she could remember, she was beginning to just… let go, ignore those nagging voices in the back of her mind, or the fact that part of her hair was trapped inside the inside of the wall (which took her and Sandy two hours to get her out safely).

Everything was for the first time, peaceful. She could understand why people became so addicted to this carefree life.

The music was loud, her ears numb from the sound and her mind was fuzzy from the muggle beverage… something about a long island – but Sandy told her it was barely alcoholic so it _must_ just be the adrenaline in her system that was making it harder to think perfectly straight.

Wait.

She remembered something, she was supposed to be doing something… what was it again? Oh! Right, she was supposed to be doing her list, with the kissing a random guy… and stuff.

She continued dancing, it didn't matter right now to her, she liked this feeling, this loose, buzzing, drunken feeling that made her feel high.

A guy started to dance with her, his arms around her, she allowed him to grope her slightly, everything PG and over the clothes, and nothing too sexual or provocative, eventually she leaned in to kiss him as the music changed to a loud pulsing beat that went through her system like a heartbeat.

Fingers were in hair and when she finally pulled away, it was to see his face. He was pretty cute, but the kiss felt bland, it was enjoyable in a way that it had been exciting to do something she shan't _ever_ do in reality, but… she didn't feel the same attraction that she had when she was with Marcus, there was nothing that really-

"What are you doing?" Sandy pulled her away from the redheaded stranger as she shouted over the music.

"Completely," Theo replied with a goofy smile, misunderstanding what her friend had asked her. Sandy rolled her eyes and half carried her friend outside the club.

"Look, I just realised how much alcohol was in that-"

"Mphg."

"What?"

"I don't… feel too well, I think I should go home," she clumsily began looking for her wand, which she had placed in a handbag that Sandy was holding, though she had forgotten that she wasn't holding it.

"Come on sweetie, your crashing at my place tonight."

"I miss Marcus, he used to hold me like I was a fragile doll."

"I know hun."


	14. Chapter Thirteen

Eight hours after arriving at Sandy's house, after seven hours of sleep, and an hour of brewing a hangover relief potion _and_ a sobriety potion, she finally arrived home. Theodora was exhausted, not just because of the 'party' but also because crashing on a bad couch _hurt_ like a mother giving birth. Well maybe not _that_ painfully, but… whatever.

She crawled into bed and quickly fell back to sleep, still dressed in her previous clothes. The witch woke up twice, once to use the toilet, and a second time to have a lage drink of water before she went back to bed, to lazy to actually get up even though she knew that soon she would be receiving a headache from oversleeping if she continued with this sleeping pattern.

_I'll worry about it later,_ she thought as she closed her eyes once more, and fell asleep.

"Wake up my itch-witch," a voice called in the darkness and Theodora awoke with a sharp breath as she jumped from fear. Her hand went to grab her wand only to realise that the blond vampiric woman was holding it in her hands as she silently laughed at her. "You smell like alcohol… and sweat."

"I was out partying last night, trying to be someone else," Theo replied angrily to Pam, "How'd you get here anyway?" She had realised quickly that it was the middle of the night and that she had a killer headache from over sleeping, though the latter bothered her more.

"Witches," She replied with a grin. Theo nodded twice as she got out of bed and padded gently to her kitchen where Pam allowed her to take back her wand so she could make coffee for herself.

"I'd offer you something, but I wasn't expecting vampires in my house," she laughed darkly at her own joke before finally taking a waft of herself, "Gath!" she exclaimed in gibberish, "I reek like the underside of the earth!" She sighed at her rumpled clothes and decided that she was going to have a shower.

Pam asked her for something as she looked over the quaint apartment, but Theo had too big a headache and too big of a stink problem to really pay attention, so she gave an almost-sort-of answer as she headed to her bathroom – that is to say, she waved her hand around and murmured incomprehensibly. The redhead closed the door behind her and dared to take a look in the wide mirror she had above her sink.

_Ouch_, she thought as she stared at her make up smudged, over-slept, face and wild hair that looked as though a swallow had been making its nest within it.

She climbed into the shower/bath and washed her hair with some strawberry scented shampoo as she cleansed her skin with chocolate body wash – both had been a gift from Sandy for her last birthday. They were, thankfully, mild scented and only gave a soft, pleasant smell unlike other stuff she had used before.

"Mmm," a voce whispered outside the green shower curtain, "you smell _divine_."

"What are you doing in here?" Theo asked; her voice seemed to change in pitch midway through speaking which made her sounded _incredibly_ 'fearless'. Even her heartbeat had begun beating at a faster pace. "You shouldn't be in here."

"Is that what you really believe?" Pam asked as she stepped within the showers boundaries, close enough that her body could graze Theo's own. The redheaded witch shuddered slightly as Pam reached around her and grabbed the cloth covered with the scented body wash. "Have you done your back?" Theo shook her head slowly, shivering once again as the cloth touched down on her back.

"W-why-" Theo attempted to clear her throat before trying to speak again, "Why are you here?"

"I'm here because Eric sent me to take you back, there's been a change in our arrangements, and since you've resigned from work we were able to take you back with force." Theo arched her back as the cloth lowered to the base of her spine. Silently she wondered if seducing was counted as force, then she paused, and wondered if Pam was trying to manipulate her in some weird vampiric matter, to gain the consent she desired to take her blood.

"I have a… question."

"Yes?" Pam stepped closer, her thigh briefly grazing Theo's causing a sudden juxtaposition of the hot water beating down it and the cool vampire body temperature.

"Umm," Theo's mind went blank suddenly as the cloth dropped down to the side of her leg, "Ah… what I was going to ask was…" she tried to stop thinking about cloth, and back to what she was going to ask, "I've read that, ah, vampire's bites can be-"

"Pleasurable?" Pam offered as the she spun Theo around and backed her against the side of the shower so that they were facing each other, eye-to-eye, or at least, Theo was looking at her eyes as she looked the witch up and down, slowly. "It can be _very_ pleasurable." She was so close to her neck that Theo could almost feel the breath that had once been admitted from those lips.

She wanted it so badly; to feel those lips curve around that place of her neck and have the ivory white fangs bury themselves beneath her flesh as she cried out.

She swallowed, her face felt hot, an almost needing ache was building up in her head as she tried to say something, consent or the opposing, she didn't really know, she just knew that if she didn't speak soon, Pam would choose for her.

She swallowed again and looked down at Pam as the vampire suddenly darted out her tongue, like a serpent, and tasted her scented skin. Pheromones clouded the air and Theodora's decision-making skills were waving thinner as each second past with the droplets that fell down their bodies.

Without thinking, the witch felt her hands hold onto to the vampire's waist, silently urging her to come back to eye level.

Her hand dragged halfway up the redhead's body from where she had been moments prior to, before she curved her head to the left so that her lips traced the rest of the way up, until she pulled back. Her hands still pinning the woman to the shower, though now her arms were brushing against the bare flesh of the woman's lower chest.

Breathing became faster, and Theo's eyes fluttered from the water. She didn't like this feeling, this almost nauseating feeling in her stomach that has happened to her before only a few times.

It was mixed with excitement and want and near, harsh need. She needed to say something, the vampire was watching, her lips parted and fangs out, ready to penetrate her any which way.

"Do-" she began, unsure herself of what she was to say, before something interrupted her.

"Theo honey, are you home?" Theodora inhaled a sharp breath before muttering a string of vulgar curse words, "Sweetheart are you in the sh-" She heard the person attempting to turn the doorknob and panic flooded her system at the sound.

"Don't come in Mum, I'm kinda in the middle of shaving my legs." Pam, suddenly feeling devious decided to toy with Theo's sudden adrenaline rush. She ran a tongue up the witch's neck, feeling her shudder beneath her she retracted her fangs so she was able to safely nibble where the neck met the collarbone.

"Honey, they have _potions_ for that, if you need me to brew-" Theo tried to push Pam away, who only pinned her tighter to wall at the struggle.

"_Mum,_ please!" Though it may not have been obvious to Theo's mother, it was obvious to Pam _whom_ the 'please' was actually directed to. Beneath her arms, the witch squirmed like a cat's prey. The interesting thing about her was that she understood that Pam wasn't human and that she herself had truly been from the start using all of her strength.

"I'm going to make myself a cup of coffee," her mother commented before Theo heard the sound of feet walking away in the soft clicks that have always been so familiar to her.

"Mmm, smelling you makes me realise how _ravenous_ I am, " Pam whispered as she buried her lips in the crevice of the witch's neck. "And that was something exciting was it not?"

"We can't, I mean…" Theo slipped around Pam and held her arms around herself shamefully, embarrassed, "my mother is here," she turned the shower off as she spoke and climbed out, quickly wrapping a towel around her, "and… she's kind of _prejudice _against… vampires… like, I kind of was."

Pam raised an eyebrow as though to ask 'and your point is…?'

"Could you, I dunno, maybe… hide, no, what I mean is…ah, can you help me out?" Theo had royally screwed up, at least in her mind, she believe that she had offended the blond vampire so badly that the vamp would drain her that instant. She swallowed.

"What's in it for me?"

"Huh?" Theo looked at her strangely, unfathomed by this statement.

"I don't do charity, so I expect equal payment for this… request." Theo chewed on her bottom lip, contemplating on what she would offer as 'payment' in return for this 'request' before she heard her mother knocking on the door again.

"Sweetie, you've been in there awhile."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be out in a second!" She turned back to Pam, running a shaking hand through her hair, "Fine, fine whatever, I'll- whatever," she hissed under her breath so her mother couldn't hear her articulated words, "just… _please_ stay here."

Pam shrugged.

"So mum, not that I'm, you know, not happy to see you and everything, but _why_ are you here?" Theo wrapped herself tighter in the robe, she didn't feel like getting dressed, so instead she put clean undergarments on and wrapped herself in her thick winter robe, it was only her mother for Merlin's sake.

"Well, you're aware how your family looks at your articles religiously because we're so proud?" Her mum handed her a cup of tea as she did so,

"No," Theo replied honestly, "I thought you didn't much care for them, you never mention them when I visit you, or bring them up, so I stopped doing so." Theo sighed as she realised what was about to happen. She ran her fingers through her damp hair and stared up at the ceiling.

"Now that's not true, we…"

_Here we go again,_ Theo reflected as though the thought its self was a storm cloud that drained the electricity out of her body, _she's going to pretend that she's always been interested in what I've been doing because of something controversial_.

"And _Stacey_ even said-"

"Mum, I believe you," she lied, the words tasting bitter in her mouth as she said them, "I was just wondering what you wanted to say." _And somewhere in Estonia, a young girl is laughing their head off_ _at the pathetic attempt at lying._

"Well, Viv said she read that you were living with a _vampire_."

"I wasn't _living_ with them, they're the undead, heh, I was sent there to, you know, write an article about them so that the witches and wizards of the world got an idea from someone who was alike them, it was a political thing you know?"

"Well, you know our family has nothing against vampires, but it did seem you were a little sweet on them." _Don't fight, just nod and agree, just nod and agree with her_.

"Yeah, you know, they're actually quite… ah, charming when it comes right down to it." Theo cringed at her statement, she hadn't meant to sound like that, it was just that one word wanted to come out and all the string of words were all muddled up because _one_, bleeding vampire decided that she wanted-

Well it doesn't matter now.

"Hey mum, I need to get dressed for a date tonight, I'll talk to you later ok?"

"Oh, is Marcus proposing? Has he already? Are you pregnant?" Theo froze at the comment, of _course_ her parents didn't know that Marcus and her had broken up, Damnit. She sighed and released the fake smile on her face to a pensive expression.

"I don't know Mum, anything's possible."

"Well I hope it's a boy."

"No, mum, I didn't mean-" and then she apparated away. "Merlin's _cock_."


End file.
